4^.1'^^ 


GIFT  or 


THE    DECAY 


OF 


MODERN  PREACHING 


The  Decay 


OF 


MODERN  Preaching 


AN    ESSAY 


BY 


r.  ?.  MAHAFFY 


NEW  YORK 

MACMILLAN  AND  CO., 

1883. 


^  ^\.:\\\.y^^^^^'^ 


^^ 


GEORGIO   SALMON 
S.  T.  P. 

OBSERVANTJiE  CAUSA 


383333 


ANALYSIS. 


Introduction,  §  1-3. 
Division  of  the  Subject,  §  4 — into 

/-  Loss  of  Novelty,  §  5. 
I.  Historical  Causes,  J  Increase  of  Education,  §  6. 
§5-8.  I       (Objection  answered,  §  7.) 

^Quietness  of  Modern  Life,  §  8. 


II.  Social  Causes, 
S  10-15. 


III.     IV.    Personal 
Causes,  §  16-26. 


V.  Defective  Types, 
§  27-43 


VI. 


Concerning 
Remedies. 


/"King  N^omos,  §  10- 11. 
-j  Absence  of  Debate,  §  12-13. 
'-Family  Life  of  the  Clergy,  §  14. 

(-Want  of  Ability,  §  16. 
I  Want  of  Piety,  §  18-20. 
I  Want  of  General  Culture,  §  21. 
•  [\^\  Rhetoric, 

Want  of  Special     J        §  23. 
Training,  §23-26.  I  In  Theology. 
I     §  24-26. 


f  The  Logical  Extreme,  §  27,  28. 
I  The  Emotional  Extreme,  §  29-31. 

The  Orthodox  Extreme,  §  32-35. 
!  Digression  on  the  Semitic  Ideal  o( 
Royalty,  §  36-38. 

The  Heterodox  Extreme,  §  39,  40. 

Excessive  Sameness,  §  41. 

Excessive  Variety,  §  43. 

'  The  Avoidance  of  Extremes,  §  44. 
Material  Inducements,  §  46. 


Higher  Culture. -[^•^"'^.'■f'J  47. 
^  !_  Special,  §  4b. 

Celibacy,  §  50. 

Itinerancy,  §  51. 

Authorised  Sermons,  §  53. 

.  Elasticity  in  Services,  §  54. 

Epilogue,  §  55. 


THE  DECAY  OF  MODERN 
PREACHING. 

INTRODUCTION. 

§  I.  There  are  perhaps  few  institutions 
in  modern  life  more  universally  accepted, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  decried,  than 
that  of  preaching.  The  Reformed  side  of 
the  Christian  Church,  which,  among  its 
various  sects,  from  Ritualist  to  Revivalist, 
includes  most  of  the  better  classes  of  the 
English  people,  is  agreed  on  the  import- 
ance of  this  manner  of  propagating  and 
confirming  the  faith.  Not  only  do  the 
parting  words  of  our  Lord  specially  enjoin 
it,  but  the  great  conquests  of  the  early 
Church,  so  far  as  they  can  be  ascribed 
to  any  human  effort,  are  commonly  as- 
cribed to  it.  In  those  sects  which  have  no 
B 


2  ON  PREACHING.  [SECT.  I. 

established  ritual,  or  where  the  ritual  is  so 
unattractive  as  to  command  little  interest, 
preaching  forms  a  main  part  of  modern 
worship,  and  extempore  prayer  is  generally 
little  more  than  an  indirect  exhortation  of 
the  same  kind.  Most  people,  whether 
really  religious  or  not,  are  conservative 
enough  to  go  regularly  to  their  church 
on  Sunday,  and  would  feel  that  they 
had  been  defrauded  of  part  of  their  due 
exercise  if  the  sermon  were  omitted.  A 
great  preacher,  though  perhaps  no  longer 
a  great  power,  attracts  crowds  of  hearers 
wherever  he  is  to  be  heard. 

And  yet  in  this  very  case  it  is  plain 
enough  that  he  no  longer  occupies  the 
position  which  preachers  once  held.  How 
common  it  is  to  hear  the  remark,  that 
such  an  one  has  thrown  away  his  oppor- 
tunities, that  he  might  have  shone  in  the 
senate  or  at  the  bar !  Men  feel  that, 
however  impressive  or  affecting  he  may  be 
in   the  pulpit,  he   only  affords  a  sort  of 


SECT.  I.]  INTRODUCTION.  3 

religious  pastime  to  society  ;  whereas  their 
serious  affairs — as  if  religion  were  not  the 
most  serious  of  all — are  always  debated ^ 
and  on  other  platforms. 

If  this  be  the  condescending  verdict  on 
great  and  successful  preachers,  what  in- 
dulgence are  the  average  likely  to  obtain  ? 
Any  one  who,  coming  from  a  strange 
country,  were  to  overhear  the  ordinary 
congregations  of  our  churches  as  they 
come  out,  from  the  first  impatient  rush 
of  boys  and  servants  to  the  sober  exit  of 
the  elders  and  church -wardens,  would 
wonder  at  the  harsh  strictures,  at  the 
indifference,  at  the  ennui  expressed  by 
the  majority,  even  when  well  educated 
and  highly  intelligent.  The  most  regular 
and  attentive  churchgoers  do  not  fall 
behind  the  rest  in  speaking  freely  of  the 
dulness,  the  sameness,  the  inconsequence, 
the  narrowness,  the  laxity,  the  length  of 
the  sermon.  A  preacher  of  any  but  the 
highest  powers  who  ventures  to  detain  his 


4  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  i. 

hearers  beyond  half  an  hour,  is  regarded  as 
a  sort  of  social  criminal,  and  the  "prospect 
of  an  hour's  sermon  would  keep  most 
people  away.  How  far  are  we  removed 
from  the  days  when  Bishop  Burnet,  who 
preached  with  an  hour-glass  running  be- 
side him,  was  requested  by  the  whole  con- 
gregation, when  it  ran  out,  to  reverse  it, 
and  continue  his  discourse  for  a  second 
hour  !  This  appears  to  us  quite  mediaeval, 
and  yet  it  is  but  yesterday  that  the  fashion 
of  short  services  and  shorter  sermons  has 
been  insisted  on  by  the  taste  of  the  day. 
Within  our  own  memory,  in  Evangelical 
Dublin,  a  minister  was  not  considered  to 
have  fulfilled  his  duty  with  a  sermon  under 
forty  minutes  ;  nor  was  an  hour  thought 
extravagant.  We  used  to  go  to  church 
at  twelve,  and  continue  there  till  a  quar- 
ter past  two  o'clock.  The  service,  with 
very  little  singing,  and  only  regarded 
as  a  prelude  to  the  sermon,  was  very 
slowly  and  reverently  performed  ;  and  the 


SECT.  I.]  INTRODUCTION.  5 

preachej-,  though  always  and  on  prin- 
ciple, choosing  the  same,  or  almost  the 
same  topic,  dilated  upon  it  at  his  leisure, 
and  yet  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  people. 
Thus  the  modern  impatience  of  preaching 
is  of  recent  growth,  aod  only  recently 
attracting  serious  attention.  But  now  the 
clergy  may  well  say :  We  have  piped  unto 
you,  aiid  ye  have  ttot  danced ;  we  have 
mourned  to  you,  and  ye  have  not  wept. 

All  this  is  the  ordinary  worldly  aspect 
of  the  matter ;  from  the  spiritual  point  of 
view  the  complaints  are  not  only  frequent, 
but  far  more  serious.  How  often  do  we 
hear  pious  people  complaining  that  they 
live  in  a  dry  and  barren  land,  where  no 
water  is !  How  often  do  we  see  serious 
people  vainly  searching  for  deeper  spiritual 
life,  and  complaining  that  when  they  ask 
for  bread  they  receive  but  a  stone  !  It  is 
in  fact  only  the  simplest  or  the  most  old- 
fashioned  congregations  who  are  now-a- 
days   satisfied    with   preaching,   and    who 


6  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  ii. 

regard  it  as  a  spiritual  boon — I  mean,  of 
course,  habitually  ;  for  we  may  freely  con- 
fess the  exceptional  delight  which  all  occa- 
sionally feel  when  something  striking  is 
said,  or  a  deep  spiritual  impression  is 
made,  from  the  pulpit.  But  then  we  say : 
Would  to  God  ordinary  preaching  were 
like  this !  This  is  what  once  reformed 
and  regenerated  the  world. 

§  2.  Is  this  a  fair  statement  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  pulpit  in  these  our  days  ? 
Has  the  censure  conveyed  been  too  hard 
or  too  sweeping  ?  It  may  seem  so  to  those 
who  count  acquiescence  as  approval,  and 
who  think  that  regular  attendance  on  the 
part  of  the  congregation  implies  real  in- 
terest. But  alas  !  most  of  this  is  mere 
conservatism  ;  it  is  the  desire  to  be  re- 
spectable and  orderly,  and  to  perform 
duties  handed  down  from  our  forefathers. 
Nothing  displeases  the  majority  of  our 
respectable  people  more  than  hearing  their 
traditional  religion  questioned.     They  do 


SECT.  II.]  INTRODUCTION.  7 

not  wish  to  be  forced  to  turn  inwards  and 
to  analyse  what  amount  of  earnestness  and 
what  amount  of  real  interest  their  regular 
devotions  imply.  They  look  upon  such 
heart-searching  as  inexpedient  and  danger- 
ous ;  it  is  likely  to  turn  some  people  away 
from  church  altogether  ;  it  is  likely  to  dis- 
quiet others,  and  render  them  less  satisfied 
with  themselves.  Why  disturb  our  most 
orderly  habits  with  these  questionings  ? 

These  are  the  arguments  of  those  who 
say  to  themselves,  Peace,  Peace,  when  there 
is  no  peace.  Immorality  and  crime  are 
still  rife  after  so  many  centuries  of  preach- 
ing ;  indifference  and  hypocrisy  are  on  the 
increase.  Is  it  not  time  to  institute  a 
thorough  and  searching  inquiry,  and  see 
whether  the  decadence  of  the  pulpit  is 
necessary  and  inherent  in  the  nature  of 
things,  or  whether  it  is  due  to  defects  and 
difficulties  which  may  be  lessened  or  re- 
moved ?  Is  it  not  time  to  consider 
whether    the    growing  want  of  sympathy 


8  ON  PREACHING.         [sect.  in. 

between  the  ordinary  preacher  and  his  con- 
gregation is  due  to  his  fault,  or  to  theirs, 
or  to  the  fault  of  both,  or  to  the  march 
of  events  which  neither  can  control  ? 

§  3.  The  main  result  of  such  an  inquiry- 
should  be  to  suggest  practical  hints  for 
preachers,  based  upon  historical  and  psy- 
chological grounds.  People  of  great  piety 
may  despise  such  aids,  and  consider  that 
the  influence  of  the  Spirit  and  the  earnest 
desire  of  the  pious  teacher  are  sufficient, 
and  more  than  sufficient,  to  endow  a 
minister.  Yet  it  is  a  fact  that  the  aids 
given  by  human  wisdom  have  been  gladly 
accepted  by  the  greatest  teachers.  Many 
a  well-meaning  Christian,  for  the  very 
want  of  being  wise  as  a  serpent,  has  not 
been  harmless  as  a  dove,  but  mischievous 
to  the  great  cause  he  rashly  or  feebly 
advocates.  Surely  all  our  faculties  and 
all  our  powers  deserve  to  be  enlisted  in 
this  great  service. 

I  will  only  add,  that  while   the  argu- 


SECT.  IV.]  DIVISION  OF  THE  SUBJECT.    9 

ments  and  illustrations  which  follow  apply 
primarily  to  the  Church  which  I  desire 
loyally  to  serve,  they  will  be  general 
enough  to  afford  suggestions  to  members  of 
other  sects,  and  even  other  religions.  Nor 
will  such  readers  find  anything  to  offend 
them,  unless  it  be  an  implication  that  their 
faith  is  mistaken.  For  I  have  assumed 
throughout  that  the  preacher  honestly 
believes  his  professed  creed,  and  have 
avoided  all  discussion  of  heresy,  as  a  dif- 
ferent, though  kindred,  subject. 

Division  of  the  Subject. 

§  4.  The  causes  of  hindrance  to  the 
success  of  the  pulpit  are  of  three  different 
kinds,  which  may  be  broadly  distinguished, 
though  in  some  respects  they  coincide,  as 
most  complicated  agents  on  society  are 
wont  to  do.  We  may  class  them  as  Ais- 
toricaly  as  social,  or  diS  personal. 

By  historical  causes    are    meant   those 


lo  ON  PREACHING.         [sect.  iv. 

which  depend  on  the  great  changes  in 
human  life  and  opinion  produced  by  the 
course  of  ages;  and  hence  they  may,  of 
all  others,  be  fairly  regarded  as  necessary 
causes,  which  we  can  hardly  even  modify, 
far  less  change,  but  upon  which  we  must 
count,  or  rather,  with  which  we  must 
reckon,  in  attempting  to  solve  the  problem. 
So  far  as  these  causes  are  active  the 
preacher  is  not  in  fault. 

Social  causes  are  those  arising  from  the 
general  action  of  society  upon  the  pulpit, — 
an  action  depending  on  old  tradition,  and 
that  curious  unwritten  law  which  has  de- 
spotic force  in  all  well-organised  and  long- 
established  States.  Though  not  necessary 
in  the  same  strict  sense  as  the  former  class, 
social  causes  are  such  as  any  single  man 
can  hardly  overcome,  for  revolt  against 
society  on  the  part  of  an  individual  is 
always  a  desperate  venture,  generally  end- 
ing in  miserable  failure  ;  and  this  is  more 
especially  the  case  when  the  business  of  the 


SECT.  IV.]  DIVISION  OF  THE  SUBJECT,  ii 

individual  is  to  be  in  sympathy  with 
society,  and  to  influence  it  by  affection- 
ate persuasion.  But  however  stern  may 
be  this  despotism,  it  is  not  so  inherent  in 
the  nature  of  things  that  it  should  not 
relax  or  change ;  and  the  weight  of  reason- 
able opinion,  disseminated  with  earnestness 
and  care,  may  induce  such  a  change  where 
it  cannot  be  rudely  enforced. 

The  last  kind  of  hindrances  are  personal, 
and  arise  not  from  the  outer  circumstances, 
but  from  the  character  of  the  preacher. 
Most  of  these,  derived  from  mistaken 
theories  of  preaching  or  from  defects  in 
education,  can  and  ought  to  be  remedied. 
Every  attempt  to  advise  and  improve  the 
preacher  in  these  particulars  ought  there- 
fore to  be  received  with  an  honest  desire 
to  profit  by  it,  and  perhaps  too  little  has 
been  done  to  help  theological  students  in 
this  practical  way. 

But  even  were  all  these  defects — those 
of  mistaken   training,  or  of  false   theory 


12  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  iv. 

—  removed,  there  remain  unfortunately 
hindrances  which  are  practically  insur- 
mountable, wherever  a  large  body  of 
men  must  be  employed  in  any  kind  of 
work.  For  a  large  body  cannot  consist  ot 
superior  men,  and  must,  when  exceed- 
ing certain  numerical  limits,  conform  in 
ability  and  earnestness  to  the  ordinary 
level  or  average  of  human  nature.  Now 
the  average  of  human  nature  has  neither 
the  intellectual  power  nor  the  moral 
earnestness  necessary  for  the  profession 
of  preaching.  Hence,  though  a  small  sect 
may  provide  itself  with  adequate  pulpit- 
power,  it  is  impossible  that  a  large  or 
national  Church  should  not  count  among 
its  ministers  a  majority  really  unfit  for  the 
noble  office  of  persuading  their  fellows  to 
adopt  a  higher  moral  and  religious  life. 
And  we  shall  see  that  it  is  a  defect  in  the 
organisation  of  a  Church  to  ignore  this 
fact,  and  to  insist  upon  all  its  ministers, 
at    every  religious    service,   attempting  a 


SECT,  v.]     HISTORICAL  CA  USES.  13 

duty  certain  to  be  inadequately,  or  even 
badly,  performed. 

But  this  suggestion  will  find  its  place 
in  the  concluding  sections,  in  which  the 
remedies  which  are  possible  or  practicable 
will  be  briefly  noticed,  and  this  with  the 
view  of  helping  those  who  feel  them- 
selves burdened  with  a  weight  which  they 
cannot  easily  bear.  The  chief  merit  in 
such  hints  is  to  be  practical,  not  to  be 
new.  It  is  not  likely  that  novelties  will 
be  of  much  value  to  solve  so  old,  and 
so  anxiously-considered  a  difificulty. 

I.  Historical  Causes. 

§  5.  Nothing  is  more  marked  in  most 
Christian  preachers  than  the  firmness  with 
which  they  hold  and  declare  that  their 
form  of  faith  was  established  once  for  all 
by  its  Founder,  and  that  no  change  or 
modification  whatever  is  to  be  tolerated  by 
the   orthodox.      This  rigid  adherence    to 


14  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  v. 

the  doctrines  of  Christianity  is  extended 
even  to  the  very  form  in  which  it  is 
preached,  and  nothing  is  thought  better  or 
more  profitable  than  to  repeat  the  old 
watchwords  of  those  who  once  stirred  the 
world  to  its  depths.  And  yet,  quite  apart 
from  the  question  of  doctrine,  to  which 
we  shall  return  presently,  the  circum- 
stances of  the  world  have  so  changed  that 
some  modification  of  the  form  of  preach- 
ing would  seem  imperatively  demanded. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  posi- 
tion of  the  early  missionaries  of  Chris- 
tianity. They  heralded  a  new  faith,  in  an 
unknown  god,  to  a  public  professing  various 
forms  of  polytheism  ;  they  boldly  claimed 
to  have  destroyed  the  reality  and  power 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  pantheons ;  they 
called  upon  their  hearers  to  abandon  all 
their  old  beliefs,  their  old  ceremonies,  their 
old  offerings,  and  break  absolutely  with 
traditions  which  had  been  hallowed  by 
the  observance  of  centuries.     To  exclaim, 


SECT,  v.]     HISTORICAL  CA  USES.  15 

Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christy  before 
such  congregations,  meant  to  expound  to 
them  the  birth,  life,  and  passion  of  an  un- 
known deity,  the  teaching  of  a  reformed 
and  purified  morality,  the  complete  change 
of  all  their  modes  of  life  and  thought. 
They  were  to  hate  father  and  mother  and 
brethren  for  His  sake;  they  were  to  quarrel 
with  the  whole  civilised  world,  and  set 
themselves  apart  as  a  peculiar  society. 

Such  preaching  had  in  it  a  boldness 
and  a  novelty  which  must  have  been  most 
striking  to  all  that  heard  it.  The  man 
who  proclaimed  it  must  have  acquired  a 
thorough  confidence  in  his  message ;  he 
must  have  felt  a  strange  enthusiasm  and 
excitement  in  telling  his  '  good  news ;' 
and  they  who  were  weary  with  seeking  a 
better  spiritual  life,  who  found  no  peace 
in  the  teaching  ot  heathendom,  must  have 
felt  a  strange  interest  in  this  wonderful 
message.  This  was  the  significance  of 
the   great   formula ;  this  was  the  ^  ground 


i6  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  v. 

of  its  perpetual  repetition.  By  itself  it 
had  then  'no  meaning ;  it  required  full 
and  explicit  commentary;  it  was  the  brief 
standing  text  of  a.  long  discourse. 

Nothing  can  replace  for  the  modern 
preacher  these  unique  advantages,  unless 
he  too  is  the  advocate  of  a  new  faith,  and 
even  then,  what  new  faith  could  show  the 
splendid  and  pathetic  surroundings  of  the 
cradle  of  Christianity?  But  the  orthodox 
preacher,  who  is  merely  expounding  re- 
ceived dogmas  to  his  hearers,  who  tells 
them  what  they  know  very  well  already, — 
nay,  who  is  regarded  with  suspicion  or 
dislike  if  he  ventures  on  anything  new, — 
how  can  he  hope  to  rival  the  early  pioneers 
of  his  creed  ?  It  is  indeed  unreasonable 
to  expect  it.  He  cannot  possibly  have  the 
same  force,  or  arouse  the  same  interest 
and  excitement  about  his  discourses  ;  and 
so  far  the  complaint  against  him  means 
only  this,  that  times  have  changed,  and 
that  most  men  are  not  now  adherents  of 


SECT,  v.]     HISTORICAL  CAUSES.  17 

some  old  and  decrepit  religion.  Indeed,  it 
is  the  very  successes  and  conquests  of  his 
forerunners  which  have  rendered  his  task 
less  splendid  and  striking. 

Let  us,  however,  add,  that  if  he  expects 
the  very  formula  which  then  reformed 
the  world  to  have  the  same  kind  of  effect 
now,  he  is  guilty  of  the  same  kind  of 
anachronism  as  the  objector.  To  exclaim 
to  a  company  of  Christians,  Believe  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is  to  tell  them  to  do 
what  they  already  profess  to  do.  They  are 
not  asked  to  abandon  any  other  gods,  any 
diverse  ritual,  any  hallowed  observances. 
In  its  ordinary  acceptation,  this  grand 
appeal  is  now  a  mere  truism,  and  the 
preacher  has  to  refine  upon  it,  and  treat 
its  terms  with  subtlety;  he  has  to  devise  a 
new  sense  for  the  term  belief,  and  so 
secure  for  his  text  a  new  interest  to 
make  up  for  what  it  has  lost.  Originally, 
to  believe  in  Jesus  meant  simply  to  give 
such  credence  to  the  facts  of  His  life,  and 


i8  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  v. 

His  claims  to  more  than  human  origin,  as 
to  displace  all  other  religions  and  beliefs, 
and  dethrone  other  gods.  Nor  was  this 
great  sacrifice  likely  to  be  made  by  any 
people  not  in  earnest  about  the  change. 
Now  we  are  told  that  intellectual  belief  is 
one  thing,  and  saving  belief  another ; 
that  we  must  believe  in  the  latter  sense, 
and  not  in  the  former  only,  not  with  the 
head,  but  with. the  heart. 

I  will  not  dispute  one  word  of  this. 
All  I  contend  for  is  that  such  subtle  dis- 
tinctions will  not  lay  hold  of  the  world  as 
the  old  preaching  did.  There  is  a  neces- 
sary decrease  in  the  power  of  preaching 
from  the  loss  of  novelty  in  its  creed. 
This  is  enhanced  by  the  stubborn  adherence 
to  old  formulae,  and  to  aphorisms  which,  if 
they  have  not  lost  their  meaning,  have  be- 
come mere  truisms.  The  preaching  of  the 
eighteenth  century  is  in  form  not  the  best 
preaching  for  the  nineteenth.  How  much 
less  is  the  preaching  of  the  second  century 


SECT.  VI.]   HISTORICAL  GA  USES.  19 

a  model  for  those  who  desire  now  to 
reform  the  world  !  No  employment  of 
second  century  formulae,  with  the  aid  of 
new  and  subtle  meanings,  will  satisfy  the 
present  need  of  spiritual  help  and  direction. 
§  6.  This  is  all  the  more  certain,  owing 
to  the  great  change  caused  by  the  develop- 
ment of  history, — nay,  by  the  influence  of 
Christianity  itself  on  the  intellectual,  and 
perhaps  in  the  moral,  relations  of  the 
preacher  and  his  hearers.  And  in  this 
place  we  must  broadly  distinguish  between 
the  more  educated  people  and  the  ignorant 
masses,  which  are  yet  but  partially  re- 
modelled by  the  course  of  civilisation. 
Taking  first  the  educated  classes, — a  very 
large  body  now-a-days,  and  often  reaching 
down  to  the  artizan  or  servant,  who  reads 
his  newspaper  and  hears  the  conversation 
of  enlightened  people, — there  is  no  longer 
a  difference  of  intellectual  level  between 
the  preacher  and  his  audience.  He  is  no 
longer  standing  forth,  if  not  an   inspired. 


20  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  VI. 

at  least  an  authorised  and  authoritative 
teacher,  who  knows  vastly  more,  and  can 
speak  vastly  better,  than  those  who  hear 
him.  Nor  is  he  their  only  instructor, 
upon  whose  guidance  they  must  depend 
for  all  their  spiritual  sustenance.  They  can 
read  other  opinions;  they  can  search  the 
Scriptures,  even  in  the  original.  They 
can  criticise  the  preacher's  arguments 
and  correct  his  mistakes.  They  are  apt 
to  come  to  church,  not  to  be  led  and 
instructed,  but  to  approve  or  disapprove, 
according  as  their  critical  judgment  leads 
them.  They  are  furnished  in  books  and 
journals  with  theological  matter  in  a  more 
elegant  form  than  most  preachers  can 
command;  their  private  judgment  is  exer- 
cised to  the  fullest  measure  of  liberty,  if  not 
of  license.  If  a  second  Paul  were  to  stand 
forth  to  this  people,  even  though  they 
had  the  discretion  or  the  good  taste  not  to 
mock,  they  would  say  to  him  calmly,  We 
will  hear  thee  again  of  this  matter. 


SECT.  VI.]    HISTORICAL  CAUSES.  ai 

To  such  people,  preaching — at  least 
regular,  every-Sunday  preaching — is  well- 
nigh  useless,  and  for  all  practical  purposes 
an  anachronism.  No  doubt  most  of  them 
will  not  confess  it ;  they  take  it  as  a  very 
mild  spiritual  stimulant ;  they  like  it  as 
affording  scope  for  their  criticism  ;  they 
even  like  it  in  order  that  they  may,  express 
their  approval  of  piety,  of  earnestness,  or 
of  learning.  But  it  is  not  true  that  this 
class,  as  a  class,  intends  or  desires  to  be 
reformed  and  enlightened  by  preaching. 
Nor  can  we  see  how  its  growth  could  have 
been  precluded  by  any  efforts  of  the  Church, 
any  more  than  the  existence  of  Stoics  and 
Epicureans,  who  listened  to  St.  Paul  with 
idle  curiosity,  or  contempt. 

The  case  may  best  be  illustrated  by 
the  success  of  missions  over  the  world. 
With  the  rarest  exceptions,  missionaries 
only  produce  large  effects  when  preaching 
to  a  people  below  them  in  mind  and 
culture, — not  too  far  below  them,  for  then 


22  ON  PREACHING.        [SECT.  vii. 

preachers  become  unintelligible,  and  speak 
of  spiritual  things  to  creatures  who  hardly 
know  what  a  spirit  means, — but  below 
them  so  far  as  to  look  up  with  veneration 
to  the  preacher  as  a  man  of  superior 
learning  and  higher  moral  aims. 

Thus  no  missions  are  attempted,  for  ex- 
ample, to  the  professors  at  the  German 
universities,  though  they  are  believed  by 
Evangelical  Christians  to  require  conversion 
as  much  as  any  class  in  the  world.  But 
their  intellectual  level  is  too  high,  and,  like 
the  Brahmins  in  India,  they  look  with  con- 
tempt upon  the  most  earnest  and  pious 
missionary,  because  they  believe  he  has  not 
thought,  or  is  not  capable  of  thinking,  as 
deeply  on  spiritual  subjects  as  they. 

§  7.  There  may  occur  to  many  readers 
the  somewhat  random  but  common  state- 
ment, that  '  the  world  was  originally  con- 
verted by  twelve  ignorant  fishermen.'  It 
is  often  alleged  that  the  deepest  earthly 
wisdom   is   confounded  by   the   power  of 


SECT.  VII.]  HISTORICAL  CA  USES.  23 

spiritual  insight  in  the  poor  and  the  igno- 
rant,— that  to  babes  and  sucklings  are  re- 
vealed things  hidden  from  the  wise  and 
prudent.  Nothing  is  more  misleading 
than  this  too  common  practice  of  dealing 
out  texts  instead  of  arguments.  Granting 
that  the  original  preachers  of  Christianity- 
were  ignorant  men,  they  were  endowed  with 
miraculous  powers,  and  were  able  to  enforce 
their  doctrine  with  signs  in  a  manner 
wholly  impossible  to  the  modern  preacher. 
It  might  as  well  be  argued  that  the  leading 
feature  in  Christ's  own  preaching  was  His 
humble  human  origin.  His  divine  powers 
outbalanced  a  thousandfold  the  advan- 
tages which  could  have  been  acquired  by 
all  the  culture  of  the  day.  A  poor  and 
ignorant  man,  with  miraculous  powers  to 
aid  him,  affords  by  his  success  no  guarantee 
that  poverty  and  ignoi'ance  are  favourable 
conditions    for  preaching.^     If,   therefore, 

^  These  are  of  use  in  two  respects  only  :  in  securing  a 
certain  freshness  and  directness,  which  is  generally  lost 


24  ON  PREACHING.        [sect.  vii. 

these  twelve  ignorant  fishermen,  led  by  a 
carpenter's  son,  had  converted  the  world, 
it  is  idle  to  assert  that  any  other  party  of 
ignorant  men,  as  such,  could  convert  the 
mass  of  men  superior  to  them  in  knowledge 
and  culture.  The  capital  feature  is  omitted 
in  all  such  arguments. 

But  it  is  high  time  to  add  that  the  state- 
ment itself  is  historically  false,  and  that  the 
world  was  not  converted  by  a  set  of  ignor- 
ant fishermen.  As  soon  as  the  preaching 
of  Christianity  began  to  extend  beyond 
the  narrow  bounds  of  Palestine,  was  it 
entrusted  to  such  preachers  ?  Nothing 
of  the  kind.  There  is  a  chosen  vessel 
selected,  a  man  born  in  a  famous  university 
town  (Tarsus),  versed  in  the  Stoic  philoso- 
phy, as  his  sermons  amply  show,^ — learned, 

by  long  reflection  on  dogmas  arid  difficulties ;  in  catching 
the  sjinpathy  of  the  masses  for  a  man  of  like  passions  and 
of  like  mental  standing  with  themselves. 

^  St.  Paul's  sermon  at  Athens,  for  example,  is  nothing 
but  a  statement  of  the  Stoical  morality,  with  the  doctrine 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Resurrection  superadded.    And  it 


SECT.  VII.]  HISTORICAL  CA  USES.  25 

besides,  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Jewish 
schools.  He  associates  with  him  men  like 
Apollos,  skilled  rhetoricians ;  he  seeks  the 
aid  of  all  the  culture  of  the  day  to  enforce 
his  doctrine.  And  even  before  Paul,  or 
apart  from  him,  there  was  a  spirit  of  learn- 
ing at  work  in  the  earliest  teachers  of  the 
Church.  Consider  the  fourth  Gospel.  If  its 
author  had  been  originally  an  ignorant 
fisherman,  he  was  something  very  different 
when  he  penned  his  account  of  the  life  of 
Christ.  He  is  learned  in  the  subtleties  of 
neo-Platonism;  he  knows  the  metaphysics 
of  Alexandria  ;  and  unless  we  adopt  the 
crudest  theory  of  verbal  inspiration,  and 
hold  that  he  wrote  down  things  which  he 
did  not  understand,  we  must  confess  that 
here  too  we  have  advanced  learning  and 

is  quite  plain  that  if  these  were  his  precise  words,  he  was 
arguing  on  the  Stoical  side  against  the  Epicurean,  just  as 
he  took  the  Pharisee's  side  against  the  Sadducee  on  a 
memorable  occasion.  Any  one  who  knows  what  the 
Stoic  theodicy  and  morals  were,  cannot  possibly  deny 
this. 


26  ON  PREACHING.        [sect.  vii. 

high  culture  employed  in  the  early  pro- 
pagation of  Christian  doctrine. 

If,  then,  high  culture  and  education 
were  necessary  even  then  to  give  effect  to 
preaching,  how  much  more  necessary  must 
they  be  now  ?  For  there  were  other 
reasons  at  that  age  of  the  world  why  a 
mere  revivalist  preacher,  a  mere  herald 
of  new  doctrine,  must  have  an  influence 
denied  .him  now.  Not  only  were  the 
world's  faiths  and  creeds  then  waning  and 
passing  into  decay,  but  there  was  in  most 
of  them  a  spirit  of  tolerance,  a  spirit  of  in- 
difference, which  admitted  without  scruple 
the  claims  of  a  rival  creed.  Provided  that 
a  new  cult  did  not  assert  itself  exclusively, 
—  provided  it  did  not  directly  conflict 
with  the  established  worship, — the  nations 
of  that  day  were  rather  disposed  to  regard 
it  as  a  varying  form  of  the  same  thing,  a 
new  name  for  the  old  gods,  a  special  revela- 
tion to  one  nation  of  the  truths  revealed 
in  common  to  all  mankind.    And  this  led 


s^CT.  vni.']   HISTORICAL  CAUSES.  27 

people  dissatisfied  with  their  own  reh'gion 
to  inquire  into  novelties  of  dogma  with  an 
earnestness  and  an  interest  now  unknown 
or  reprobated.  When  they  found  that 
Christianity  would  tolerate  no  rival  and 
admit  of  no  identification  with  other  faiths, 
then  came  the  struggle  which  has  already 
been  noticed  ;  but  the  first  heralding  of  a 
new  faith  was  received  with  far  different 
feelings  from  those  with  which  we  regard 
the  claims  of  any  revelation  which  could 
be,  or  which  has  been,  made  in  our  times. 
§  8.  And,  apart  from  the  inclusiveness 
and  cosmopolitanism  of  heathen  theology, 
there  were  features  in  life  and  society  which 
made  men  more  anxious  generally  for 
some  revelation  which  would  bring  peace 
to  their  troubled  hearts,  and  hope  of  future 
rest  from  the  tumults  of  life.  Christianity, 
and  with  it  modern  civilisation,  have  so 
quieted  down  the  wild  passions  and  con- 
flicts of  men,  that  now  most  of  us  lead  a 
sober  and  peaceful  life,  with  little  fear  that 


28  ON  PREACHING.      [sect.  viii. 

we  shall  be  disturbed  in  our  homes,  or  in 
the  still  course  of  our  life,  by  the  invasion 
of  enemies,  or  the  far  worse  inroads  of 
the  tyrant  and  his  minions. 

But  we  must  remember  that  in  the  de- 
cay of  the  old  world  injustice  and  violence 
were  common,  and  it  was  no  strange  or 
exceptional  thing  to  pass  from  peace  and 
prosperity  into  hopeless  misery  and  slavery. 
If  in  our  day  a  hostile  army  invades  a 
country,  even  the  soldiery  is  obliged  to 
respect  the  rights  of  unarmed  people,  and 
many  of  the  defenceless  victims  escape 
with  no  greater  damage  than  the  loss  of 
money,  of  movable  property,  and  of  their 
domestic  comforts.  In  old  times,  when 
women  and  children  brought  a  price  in 
the  market  as  slaves,  and  were  regarded 
as  the  lawful  spoil  of  the  conqueror, — when 
the  butchering  of  prisoners  in  battle, 
though  hardly  the  rule,  was  not  only 
allowable  but  even  frequent, — then  indeed 
the  terrors  of  war  were  far  different  from 


SECT.  IX.]  HISTORICAL  CAUSES.  29 

anything  that  now  threatens  civilised 
people.  Even  the  Roman  peace  did  not  se- 
cure outlying  provinces  from  these  terrors ; 
and  at  home,  when  they  had  disappeared 
save  in  days  of  revolution  (and  these  not 
by  any  means  rare),  we  know  that  the  cruel 
despotism  of  many  emperors  produced  a 
horrible  uncertainty  not  less  destructive 
than  war  of  that  sense  of  security  which 
is  our  greatest  earthly  blessing.  Hence 
thoughtful  men  in  the  first  ages  of  Chris- 
tianity were  driven  by  their  circumstances 
to  seek  spiritual  peace  and  a  spiritual 
liberty  beyond  the  chances  of  war  and  the 
caprice  of  tyrants,  with  an  eagerness  not 
easily  to  be  appreciated  in  modern  society. 
§  9.  So,  then,  it  has  been  shown  that  by 
reason  of  historical  necessities,  some  of 
which  are  beyond  our  control,  and  others 
produced  by  the  very  successes  of  preach- 
ing itself,  it  is  impossible  that  the  pulpit 
should  now  hold  the  great  position  as  an 
eng-ine  of  moral  reform  and  culture  which 


30  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  x. 

it  once  undoubtedly  occupied.  The  loss 
of  all  novelty  in  the  subject,  the  gain  in 
learning  and  intelligence  among  the  con- 
gregations, and  the  quiet  and  undisturbed 
flow  of  our  modern  life,  which  is  rarely 
stirred  up  by  seasons  of  intense  excitement, 
— all  these  causes  have  produced  their 
effect,  and  it  is  impossible  to  undo  it. 

II.  Social  Causes. 

§  lo.  The  settled  and  calm  course  of 
modern  life,  however,  suggests  to  us  that 
the  causes  hitherto  assigned  are  only  part 
of  the  obstacles  to  the  success  of  modern 
preaching,  and  that,  apart  from  the  great 
historical  agents  already  discussed,  there 
exist  social  hindrances,  whose  influence  is 
more  proximate,  and  often  more  deeply 
felt.  They  are  not  indeed  necessary  in 
the  strict  sense,  inasmuch  as  they  depend 
on  social  arrangements  which  may  be  re- 
versed, and  which  we  may  even  hope  to 


SECT.  X.]  SOCIAL  CA  USES.  31 

see  reversed,  by  a  proper  education  of  pub- 
lic opinion.  Nevertheless,  to  the  individual 
preacher  they  are  bonds  which  tie  him  to 
a  certain  routine  with  irresistible  force,  and 
perhaps  nowhere  does  he  feel  a  greater 
and  more  stringent  necessity.  They  are 
therefore  to  be  placed  on  debatable  ground 
between  the  necessary  and  the  contingent 
obstacles  to  the  success  of  preaching,  and 
as  such  naturally  find  their  place  in  this 
part  of  the  discussion. 

I  need  hardly  insist  that  the  older  and 
more  settled  a  society,  the  more  surely 
will  the  majority  of  its  members  adopt  a 
certain  fixed  course  of  life,  regulating 
even  the  most  trivial  details  with  a  sullen 
uniformity.  We  find  it  in  dress,  in  the 
hours  of  eating  and  sleeping,  in  the  daily 
round,  not  only  of  business,  which  must  be  / 
uniform,  but  of  pleasure,  which  ought  not  \ 
to  be  so.  This  is  that  King  Nomos  ot 
whom  Plato  speaks  as  the  real  ruler  of 
society  ;  it   is  the  Deb  of  the  Turcoman 


32  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  x. 

nomad,  who  fixes  even  his  rude  life  accord- 
ing to  its  unwritten  behests.  But  nations 
differ  in  the  intensity  of  their  devotion  to  it, 
or  in  the  invariabihty,  it  may  be,  of  their 
acquiescence — often  a  heedless  acquies- 
cence,— till  some  one  dares  to  violate  it, 
when  they  quickly  enforce  the  law  by 
unwritten,  but  not  the  less  stringent, 
penalties.  Let  a  man  change  but  the  cut 
of  his  coat  or  the  height  of  his  hat,  and  he 
is  not  only  pursued  by  ridicule,  but  is  cen- 
sured by  grave  people  as  guilty  of  eccen- 
tricity,— the  unpardonable  sin  of  modern 
society, — and  therefore  as  generally  un- 
trustworthy in  the  serious  affairs  of  life. 

In  no  case  is  this  feeling  more  tyrannical 
or  exacting  than  in  the  ordinary  observ- 
ances of  religion.  The  smallest  variation 
from  the  usual  practice  in  our  services 
excites  the  ire  of  the  orthodox.  Even 
those  otherwise  careless  in  religion  and 
lax  in  morality  pose  as  the  guardians  of 
purity  and  uniformity  in  ritual.      But  we 


SECT.  X.]  SOCIAL  CAUSES.  33 

are  not  here  concerned  with  ritual  in  its 
ordinary  sense.  We  are  here  occupied 
with  the  social  uniformity  which  asserts  its 
authority  over  the  preacher  more  than 
Rubrics  or  even  Articles,  which  insists  that 
he  shall  submit  to  the  dictates  of  a  society 
which  cares  not  to  be  disturbed,  which 
hates  to  be  alarmed,  and  which  desires 
little  more  from  the*  pulpit  than  a  confir- 
mation of  its  prejudices. 

Thus  he  is  required,  on  fixed  and 
very  frequent  occasions,  however  indis- 
posed or  empty  he  may  feel  as  regards 
teaching,  to  ascend  a  narrow  pulpit,  where 
he  has  no  power  of  movement  or  action. 
Indeed  all  action  more  violent  than  that 
of  speaking  very  loud,  or  thumping  the 
cushion  before  him,  is  prohibited,  and 
even  these  symptoms  of  energy  have  come 
to  be  considered  excessive  and  ill-bred. 
He  is  obliged  to  find  a  text  of  Scripture 
from  which  to  draw  his  lessons,  even  though 

there   be   none   exactly    appropriate,   and 
D 


34  ON  PREACHING.         [sect.  xi. 

though  he  be  forced  to  employ  many 
quibbles  and  subtleties  to  graft  on  his 
discourse  to  the  text.  He  is  not  to  speak 
too  loud  or  too  low  ;  he  must  not  be  too 
long  or  too  short :  if  the  former,  he  offends 
the  worldly  and  idle,  who  only  come  to 
church  from  habit,  and  desire  to  escape 
as  soon  as  may  be  convenient ;  if  the  latter, 
he  annoys  the  serious  and  respectable 
people,  who  think  that  such  brevity  re- 
flects on  the  importance  of  his  subject.  If 
he  employs  anecdotes  and  descends  to  par- 
ticulars, in  order  to  give  colour  to  his  ser- 
mon, he  is  thought  familiar  ;  if  he  keeps 
to  dogma  only,  he  is  thought  dry.  In  fact, 
every  sort  of  departure  from  a  fixed  norma, 
a  fixed  way  of  speaking,  a  fixed  way  of 
thinking,  is  resented  by  some  section  of 
his  congregation. 

§  1 1.  Above  all,  to  be  amusing  is  a  great 
crime.  The  shadow  of  puritanism  still 
hangs  over  our  churches,  and  if  a  genera- 
tion  ago    all    ornament  in    churches   was 


SECT.  XI.]         SOCIAL  CA  USES.  35 

thought  to  savour  of  worldliness  or  of  false 
doctrine,  so  all  levity,  as  it  is  called,  is 
considered  as  excluded  by  the  solemnity 
of  the  subject.  And  yet  men  pleading 
for  life  and  death,  for  great  issues  of  poverty 
and  wealth,  for  great  party  struggles  which 
involve  the  weal  and  woe  of  millions,  do 
not  disdain  to  attract  and  to  divert  their 
audience  by  an  appeal  to  that  peculiarly 
human  quality,  the  faculty  of  laughter. 
There  is  no  orator  in  the  world,  speaking 
on  the  subject  nearest  to  his  heart,  and 
most  vital  to  those  he  addresses,  who 
avoids  this  great  help  to  persuasion,  ex- 
cept the  preacher.  To  him,  while  wit 
is  wholly  inadmissible,  even  humour  is  only 
allowed  in  the  form  of  bitterness  and  sar- 
casm, the  very  forms  which  are  really  most 
unsuitable  to  his  sacred  office. 

There  is,  moreover,  a  large  section  of 
Christians,  who  will  not  tolerate  any  variety 
of  subject,  who  think  that  the  preacher  has 
but   one    message   to  bring,  and   that  so 


36  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  xi. 

paramount  in  importance,  that  every 
moment  not  devoted  to  it  is  lost  or 
wasted,  and  they  require  him  to  repeat 
this  message  every  Sunday  of  his  life. 

Such  are  the  bonds  of  uniformity 
with  which  modern  society  trammels  the 
preacher,  and  from  which  only  a  strong 
and  exceptional  nature  can  free  itself. 
The  average  preacher,  who  feels  no  special 
force  or  originality,  never  even  thinks  of 
struggling  against  them  ;  and  so,  if  we 
walk  into  any  strange  place  of  worship, 
we  may  anticipate,  in  nine  cases  out  of 
ten,  exactly  the  sort  of  thing  we  shall  hear. 
It  will  be  respectable  and  commonplace, 
delivered  with  a  voice  and  tone  implying 
official  seriousness.  It  will  generally  be 
all  true,  when  not  too  narrow,  and  it  will 
be  excellent  advice  for  people  to  follow. 
But  we  also  know  that  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten,  we  shall  see  plainly  that  most  of 
the  congregation  may  feel  acquiescence 
in  it  all,  but  no  interest.     Modern  society 


SECT.  XII.]        SOCIAL  CA  USES.  37 

has  done  its  best  to  make  preaching  a 
perfunctory  duty,  and  it  has  succeeded. 
People  even  play  the  part  so  well  as  to 
deny  with  not  unreal  indignation  the  truth 
of  this  picture.  They  assert  boldly  enough 
that  to  them  preaching  is  a  source  of  spirit- 
ual profit  and  moral  good.  But  the  facts 
remain.  Wherever  preaching  still  retains 
its  life  and  power,  it  is  an  exception  to  the 
rule  ;  and  the  rule,  at  least  in  established 
churches,  is  very  much  as  above  described. 
§  1 2.  It  is,  I  think,  an  effect  of  this  same 
tendency  that  serious  debate  is  excluded 
from  our  pulpits.  Any  rival  statements  of 
doctrine  are  carefully  avoided,  and  any 
preacher  who  should  admit  to  his  pulpit  an 
opponent  of  his  views,  and  carry  on  a  real 
debate,  even  at  intervals  of  a  week  between 
charge  and  counter  -  charge,  would  be 
thought  to  violate  all  propriety.  Is  not 
each  minister  supposed  to  teach  the  whole 
truth,  and  would  not  the  admission  that  his 
statements  were  open  to  refutation  destroy 


38  ON  PREACHING.        [sect.  xii. 

his  authority  as  a  teacher  ?  Such  is  the  feel- 
ing, and  hence,  though  rival  teachers  may 
reply  to  each  other  by  hint  and  innuendo, 
and  it  be  understood  that  one  discourse 
is  an  answer  to  another,  no  really  honest 
or  serious  debate  is  possible.  This  depends 
to  a  great  extent  on  the  nature  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  the  claims  to  certainty  made  by 
religious  people  who  teach.  It  may  be, 
therefore,  a  necessary  defect  in  the  ser- 
mons of  an  established  church,  and  one  for 
which  its  preachers  are  not  to  be  blamed. 
But  then  we  allow  ourselves  controversy, 
and  it  is  not  unusual  to  hear  from  the 
pulpit  a  criticism  of  some  new  theological 
work,  or  of  a  rival  system.  Indeed,  the 
most  interesting  and  striking  sermons  I 
have  ever  heard  were  of  this  kind  ;  they 
were  the  controversial  discourses  against 
Popery,  which  were  once  usual  in  all  the 
evangelical  churches  of  Dublin,  and  which 
were  undertaken  by  the  ablest  men.  These 
discourses   were    generally    on    week-day 


SECT,  xiil.]        SOCIAL  CAUSES.  39 

evenings  ;  the  preacher  was  allowed  some 
license  of  illustration  and  argument,  and 
though  the  churches  were  chiefly  crowded 
with  Protestants  who  came  to  hear  their 
own  orthodoxy  and  superiority  to  their 
Catholic  brethren  demonstrated,  it  was 
not  unusual  for  Roman  Catholics  to  enter 
unsuspected,  and  hear  what  was  to  be  said 
against  their  faith.  These  sermons  had 
real  life  in  them.  The  speaker  was  com- 
bating what  was  felt  a  great  and  pressing 
evil  ;  he  had  the  warm  sympathies  of  his 
congregation  ;  he  was  allowed  ample  time 
for  his  discourse  ;  and  though  he  had  no  op- 
ponent there  to  contradict  him,  or  to  repu- 
diate the  strange  travesties  of  Romish  doc- 
trine he  often  presented  to  his  hearers,  there 
was  at  least  some  semblance  of  a  discussion. 
§  13.  To  revert  for  a  moment  to  the 
subject  of  the  last  chapter,  does  not  this 
popularity  and  interest  of  controversy  show 
the  mighty  influence  exercised  by  the  first 
Christian  preachers,  when  there  was  a  great 


40  ON  PREACHING.      [SECT.  xiii. 

conflict  of  rival  faiths,  and  when  men  met 
to  consider,  not  the  ordinary  lessons  of  a 
religion  in  which  all  were  agreed,  but  the 
life  or  death  of  a  whole  creed,  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  whole  system  of  doctrine,  the 
reality  of  a  whole  body  of  alleged  facts  ? 

But  now  our  congregations  are  some- 
what weary  of  controversy.  They  cannot 
work  themselves  up  to  take  a  keen  part  in 
the  argument  They  say  it  is  all  very 
well  to  argue  one  side,  when  you  have  no 
one  to  answer  on  the  other.  They  say 
that  it  is  rather  the  duty  of  the  preacher  to 
enforce  truth  than  to  seek  out  and  expose 
error.  Many  a  stumbling-block  to  the 
faith,  they  add,  would  be  unknown  to  the 
people,  if  the  preacher  did  not  quote  it 
from  an  adversary,  often  without  the  power 
of  removing  it  satisfactorily.  All  this  is 
evidence,  I  think,  of  a  waning  in  true  in- 
terest about  religion,  in  real  anxiety  about 
the  spreading  and  confirming  of  the  faith. 
And  it  is  not  very  logical  that  this  spirit, 


SECT.  XIV.]        SOCIAL  CA  USES.  41 

which  is  so  great  an  obstacle  to  effective 
preaching,  should  set  people  to  turn  upon 
the  very  ordinance  which  they  are  depriving 
of  its  power,  and  charge  it  with  debility 
and  decay. 

§  14.  But  the  tyranny  of  social  circum- 
stances does  not  merely  lie  in  wait  for  the 
preacher  when  he  ascends  his  pulpit ;  it  fol- 
lows him  into  everyday  life,  and  imposes 
upon  him  such  conditions  as  react  unfavour- 
ably upon  his  sermons.  The  ministry  of 
most  modern  forms  of  religion  is  no  longer 
a  celibate,  but  a  married  order  ;  and  so 
strong  is  the  objection  to  the  usage  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  in  Protestant  churches, 
that  celibacy  is  positively  disliked,  and  we 
may  assume  the  preacher  to  be  a  family 
man,  living  in  the  midst  of  his  people.  It  is 
no  part  of  the  present  subject  to  discuss 
generally  the  advantages  or  disadvantages 
of  celibacy  in  the  clergy.  No  doubt  there 
are  many  drawbacks  and  difficulties  in 
such   a   restriction,   and   it    may   be    that 


42  ON  PREACHING        [sect.  xiv. 

those  people  who,  after  a  young  clergyman 
has  remained  some  years  in  a  parish,  posi- 
tively complain  of  him  if  he  does  not  marry, 
have  some  weighty  reasons  on  their  side. 

But  from  the  point  of  view  of  preaching, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  married  life 
creates  great  difificulties  and  hindrances. 
The  distractions  caused  by  sickness  and 
other  human  misfortunes  increase  neces- 
sarily in  proportion  to  the  number  of  the 
household ;  and  as  the  clergy  in  all  countries 
are  likely  to  have  large  families,  the  time 
which  might  be  spent  in  meditation  on 
their  discourses  is  stolen  from  them  by 
other  duties  and  other  cares.  The  Catholic 
priest,  when  his  daily  round  of  outdoor 
duties  is  over,  comes  home  to  a  quiet  study, 
where  there  is  nothing  to  disturb  his 
thoughts.  The  family  man  is  met  at  his 
door  by  troops  of  children  welcoming  his 
return,  and  claiming  his  interest  in  all  their 
little  affairs.  Or  else  the  disagreements 
of  the  household  demand  him  as  an  um- 


SECT.  XIV.]       SOCIAL  CA  USES.  43 

pire,  and  his  mind  is  disturbed  by  no 
mere  speculative  contemplation  of  the 
faults  and  follies  of  mankind,  but  by  their 
actual  invasion  of  his  home.  Hence  it  is 
that  the  weekly  sermon  is  so  often  scamped, 
or  copied  hurriedly  from  some  diverse 
thinker,  so  that  it  fits  him  badly,  and 
sounds  hollow  and  foreign  in  his  mouth. 

Need  we  add  that  the  defects  of  his 
family,  the  mistakes  of  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, his  own  foibles  in  daily  life,  any 
chance  scandal  in  the  house,  for  which  he 
may  not  be  to  blame, — all  these  things, 
seen  by  his  neighbours  and  discussed  in 
the  parish,  must  necessarily  take  from  the 
weight  of  his  exhortations  in  the  pulpit. 
If  he  maintains,  as  he  is  bound,  an  ide^l 
standard  in  his  teaching  ;  if  he  inveighs 
against  the  lesser  faults  of  men,  and  urges 
upon  his  hearers  the  higher  spiritual  life, 
they  are  ready  enough  to  retort  that  his 
own  household  does  not  show  forth  an 
adequate  illustration  of  his  precepts.     They 


44  •  ON  PREACHING.        [SECT.  xiv. 

will  say,  Physician,  heal  thyself ;  the  won- 
ders which  he  would  work  in  the  homes 
of  others  should  first  be  shown  under  his 
own  roof. 

All  this  is  really  irrelevant  and  unfair. 
It  is  absurd  to  say  that  a  man  should  not 
aim  at  things  higher  than  he  can  perform ; 
it  is  absurd  that  hindrances  which  he  is 
often  really  unable  to  overcome  should  be 
charged  to  him  as  personal  shortcomings. 
But  it  is  not  the  less  true,  that  in  this 
case  familiarity  breeds  contempt,  and  the 
preacher  must  be  a  very  rare  personage, 
and  blessed  with  a  very  rare  wife  and 
children,  if  they  prove  no  hindrance  to  the 
power  of  his  sermons.  That  there  are 
such  exceptional  cases  must  be  freely  and 
thankfully  admitted.  There  are  men  whose 
daily  life,  far  from  injuring  their  eloquence, 
is  its  real  and  even  its  only  source,  so  that 
when  a  stranger  hears  them  he  wonders 
at  the  earnestness  of  their  crowded  con- 
gregations.    These  men  live  their  sermon 


SECT.  XIV.]      SOCIAL  CAUSES.  -45 

through  the  week  ;  they  show  forth  in  their 
conduct  the  ensample  of  a  holy  life.  If  the 
great  majority  of  preachers  were  of  this 
kind  the  present  essay  would  have  little 
practical  use.  But  we  are  dealing  with 
the  average, — both  the  average  preacher 
and  the  average  congregation, — and  it  is 
with  these  we  must  reckon  and  balance 
the  account.  For  it  is  quite  certain  that 
there  is  no  prospect  of  the  mass  of  the 
ministry  in  any  large  or  national  Church 
ever  rising  to  so  high  a  level.  They  must 
be  men  of  like  intellects,  like  passions,  like 
character,  to  most  of  mankind. 

To  such  the  settled  family  life  of  our 
clergy  is  a  great  obstacle,  and  indeed  the 
course  of  history  shows  that  the  most  emin- 
ently striking  and  successful  preachers  have 
been  celibate  monks  and  anchorites,  living  i 
apart  from  the  world,  assumed  by  the  crowd 
from  their  ascetic  life  to  be  of  exceptional 
sanctity,  and  flashing  upon  the  people  at 
intervals  from  their  holy  seclusion.     Such 


46  ON  PREACHING.        [SECT.  XV. 

were  Peter  the  Hermit,  and  Savonarola, 
and  John  the  Baptist.  When  men  of  a 
different  type  have  attained  to  a  like 
eminence  it  has  generally  been  as  itinerant 
preachers,  whose  roving  life  prevented  any 
long  familiarity  with  their  domestic  con- 
cerns, or  their  ordinary  moments,  so  that 
by  this  expedient  they  exalted  themselves 
practically  to  the  condition  of  celibates, 
•only  known  to  their  hearers  when  they 
appeared  as  heralds  of  great  truths  and 
denouncers  of  prevailing  sin. 

§  I  5.  Thus,  then,  modern  society  lays  its 
shackles  about  the  preacher,  and  entwines 
him  in  a  net  of  conditions  most  unfavour- 
able for  his  office.  He  is  placed,  so  to 
speak,  in  a  house  of  glass  in  the  middle  of 
his  people  ;  he  is  encouraged  to  surround 
himself  with  a  family,  thus  giving  hostage 
after  hostage,  not  only  to  fortune,  but  to 
criticism  ;  so  that  it  is  a  marvel  if  he  can 
come  before  his  audience  without  a  con- 
sciousness on  his  part  that  they  know  his 


SECT.  XV.]        SOCIAL  CAUSES.  47 

foibles  and  discuss  his  failures,  and  a  con- 
sciousness on  theirs,  that  though  now  it  is 
for  him  to  warn  and  to  censure,  they  can, 
during  the  week,  repay  him  his  exhorta- 
tions, perhaps  with  interest.  This,  indeed, 
may  be  one  reason  why  the  clergy  find  it 
necessary  to  occupy  their  discourses  either 
with  the  explanation  of  dogmas,  or  with 
such  general  reflections  as  will  not  en- 
courage a  retort.  But,  if  so,  they  lose 
in  directness,  and  consequently  in  power. 
No  man  will  be  great  as  a  teacher  who  is  ;  ( 
felt  to  be  avoiding  the  burning  topics  of  )  / 
the  day. 

It  is  to  be  noted  in  limitation  of  these 
remarks  that  the  evil  is  worst  in  the  best 
society,  and  where  the  congregation  is  on 
a  level  with,  or  even  above,  the  preacher. 
Those  who  have  the  privilege  of  teaching 
simple  rustics  or  rude  mechanics  are  indeed 
subject  to  criticism,  and  will  have  any 
scandal  in  their  family  very  roughly  cen- 
sured ;  but  they  are  less  likely   to  have 


48  ON  PREACHING.       [SECT.  xvi. 

their  ordinary  life  microscopically  ex- 
amined, and  made  the  subject  of  minute 
daily  gossip.  Still,  even  here,  the  feeling 
that  the  man  is  smaller  than  his  profession, 
— that  the  teacher  of  ideal  virtues  is  no 
paragon  himself, — mars  the  gospel  in  his 
mouth,  and  makes  men  tolerate  him  for 
his  office  sake,  not  for  his  personal  weight. 
Great  preachers,  like  great  saints,  will 
overcome  all  this.  Would  they  were  more 
numerous ! 

III.  Personal  Causes. 

§  1 6.  We  come  now  to  those  personal 
causes,  which  are  for  the  most  part  not  neces- 
sary, but  the  fault  of  individuals,  and  it  is 
here  accordingly  that  we  may  fairly  expect 
to  suggest  some  practical  improvement.  But 
though  most  of  the  hindrances  we  are  now 
to  discuss  be  contingent  on  the  preacher's 
own  faults,  even  here  there  are  personal 
defects  for  which  he  can  hardly  be  blamed  ; 


s^CT.  xvi.]  PERSONAL  CAUSES.  49 

they  are  the  result  of  his  parentage  and 
his  education.  Thus  it  is  usually  the  fault 
of  some  reckless  or  foolish  marriage  that 
he  grows  up  a  sickly  or  a  stupid  child  ; 
it  is  the  fault  of  his  parents  that  whatever 
faculties  he  has  are  not  developed  by 
proper  education.  It  is  unfair  to  ascribe 
these  defects,  though  personal,  to  the  man 
himself,  and  call  them  faults  which  he 
might  avoid.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  some 
of  them  can  be  either  avoided  or  lessened, 
both  by  his  own  care  and  the  care  of  those 
who  train  him,  so  that  even  here,  from  a 
wider  point  of  view,  we  may  regard  them 
as  for  the  most  part  remediable. 

The  greatest  and  most  constant,  which 
tells  against  all  professions,  is  want  of 
ability.  But  while  this  is  conceded  else- 
where, on  preaching  it  is  common  enough 
to  cite  texts  about  confounding  the  wise, 
about  being  puffed  up  with  human  know- 
ledge, about  administering  the  pure  gospel 
as  milk    to    babes,   and    many  other   true 


*   50  ON  PREACHING        [sect.  xvi. 

and  inspired  texts  which  are  in  this  con- 
nection wholly  irrelevant.  We  shall  con- 
sider in  due  time  the  paramount  value  of 
piety  and  simplicity  in  a  preacher,  and  I 
trust  no  one  will  accuse  me  of  underrating 
them.  But  this  must  be  insisted  upon,  that 
want  of  brains  is  a  capital  defect,  and  that 
no  amount  of  moral  excellence  will  make 
a  stupid  man  a  successful  preacher.  He 
may,  by  his  firmness  of  character,  his  purity 
of  life,  his  unaffected  piety,  attain  such  in- 
fluence that  he  may  appear  to  those  who 
know  him  to  have  power  in  the  pulpit. 
But  this,  as  has  been  said  already,  is  not 
really  preaching ;  it  is  living  his  sermon, — a 
very  noble  thing  it  is,  nobler,  no  doubt,  than 
any  preaching  ; — and  if  we  could  secure  a 
majority  of  such  men,  it  would  follow  not 
so  much  that  the  pulpit  would  gain  in 
power,  as  that  it  would  lose  in  importance. 
But  in  discussing  preaching  as  such, — in 
discussing  the  reasons  that  make  it  weak 
and   ineffectual, — we   are   bound   to   note 


SECT.  :x.vi.']   PERSONAL  CAUSES.  51 

direct  causes  as  prior  to  indirect,  and  of  the 
direct  causes  there  is  none  more  serious 
than  want  of  ability  in  our  preachers. 
No  doubt  the  majority  of  mankind  is 
wanting  in  this  quality ;  the  average  of 
intellect  is  low,  and  most  people  are  very 
dull ;  but  when  we  find  so  many  men  pro- 
fessing to  teach  from  the  pulpit  who  are 
totally  unable  to  frame  a  sustained  argu- 
ment,— nay,  more,  unable  to  understand 
it  when  put  before  them, — we  cannot  but 
conclude  that  the  abler  young  men  of  our 
day  do  not  adopt  this  profession,  and  that 
our  preachers,  as  a  body,  are  below  even 
the  average  in  intellect.  I  remember  very 
well — indeed  painfully  well  —  a  class  of 
divinity  students  which  I  instructed  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  after  labouring 
a  whole  term  with  all  possible  care,  and 
making  them  go  over  the  argument,  and 
write  it  out,  and  rehearse  it,  they  con- 
fessed to  me  in  a  body  at  the  end  of  the 
term  that  they  had  made  no  advance  in  it 


52  ON  PREACHING.       [sect,  xvi, 

whatever,  for  that  no7ie  of  them  was  able  to 
follow  an  argument.  They  were  not  many, 
— eight,  I  think, — and  such  a  case  only 
occurred  to  me  once  in  many  years'  teach- 
ing ;  but  in  every  year  there  were  some 
men  of  this  kind — men  who  deliberately 
adopted  the  profession  of  religious  teach- 
ing, with  the  consciousness  that  they  could 
not  possibly  understand  what  they  had  to 
teach.  They  were,  in  fact,  adopting  this 
profession  because  they  were  too  dull 
for  any  other. 

If  it  is  no  wonder  on  the  one  hand  that 
such  men  produce  no  effect,  and  bring 
preaching  into  disrepute,  on  the  other  it 
is  not  the  least  surprising  that  the  ministry 
should  be  regarded  as  suitable  for  a 
stupid  man.  In  most  forms  of  settled 
religion  intellectual  ability  does  not  receive 
the  rewnrd  it  deserves  and  gains  in  other 
walks  of  life.  In  religion  people  are  con- 
servative ;  they  dislike  novelty  and  change, 
and    cleverness  is   akin  to    a    disposition 


SECT.  XVI.]   PERSONAL  CAUSES.  53 

for  new  views.  Throughout  most  of  a 
minister's  duties  moral  qualities  are  natur- 
ally far  more  appreciated.  Moreover  great 
ability  leads  him  to  seek  wider  influence, 
to  declare  himself  on  politics  and  public 
affairs,  to  burst  the  trammels  which  society 
has  placed  around  him.  Hence  society 
has  itself  banished  intellect  from  its  pulpits, 
and  now  complains  that  their  teaching  is 
dull ! 

There  are  creeds  or  sections  of  churches, 
like  the  Dominican  Order,  and  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland,  in  which  ability  in  the 
pulpit  leads  to  great  eminence  and  a 
high  public  position.  Accordingly,  these 
churches  or  orders  have  never  wanted  men 
of  intellect  in  considerable  numbers.  But, 
generally  speaking,  how  few  men  of  talent 
turn  to  preaching !  How  rare  it  is  to  go 
casually  into  the  religious  service  of  any 
creed  and  hear  a  really  able  discourse — a 
discourse  which,  apart  from  the  special 
dogmas  propounded,  or  the  external  gifts 


54  ON  PREACHING.      [sect.  xvii. 

of  the  speaker,  shows  a  real  grasp  of  his 
subject  ?  No  doubt  he  is  hampered  by 
the  social  causes  already  discussed  ;  he  is 
limited  to  a  subject  so  well  worn  that,  but 
for  its  native  majesty  and  indestructible 
importance,  one  might  venture  to  call  it 
threadbare.  Yet  all  these  obstacles  might 
be,  and  are,  overcome  if  a  man  of  intellect 
undertakes  the  task.  It  lies  then  with 
society,  which  criticises  the  preacher,  to  re- 
form this  defect,  and  see  that  the  task  is  en- 
trusted to  men  of  talent.  No  other  quality 
will  make  a  man  an  effective  teacher  of 
those  superior  to  him  in  intelligence.  They 
may  follow  him  for  the  novelty  of  his  doc- 
trine, or  the  firmness  of  his  character,  or 
the  piety  of  his  life ;  but  when  he  shocks 
their  intellects  by  want  of  common  sense, 
or  by  a  display  of  bad  logic, — in  fact,  as 
soon  as  they  feel  that  he  is  stupid, — he 
will  generally  fail  to  reach  their  hearts 
or  stir  them  to  higher  and  purer  lives. 
§  1 7.  If  he  does  so,  it  will  be  by  means 


SECT.  XVII.]    PERSONAL  CA  USES.  55 

of  a  mental  quality  far  rarer  even  than  in- 
tellect— the   quality  of    leading   men    by 
strength  of  will  or  character.      This  capital 
source  of  influence  is  generally  combined 
with  some  intellect,  though  many  men  of 
intellect  have  it  not ;    we  may  even  ad- 
mit that  great  subtlety  of  mind  is  hardly 
compatible  with  it.       But  there  are  rare 
cases    where    a    man,   endowed   with   but 
moderate     intellectual     ability,     has     this 
curious  force  in  him, — a  something  hard 
to  define,  not  necessarily  resulting  from  ex- 
ceeding honesty,  or  piety,  or  unselfishness, 
though  generally  coupled  with  these, — a 
mental  quality  which  we  know  by  its  effects, 
for  it  always  marks  out  its  possessor  as  a 
leader  of  men.      It  is,  however,  so  rare  that 
we  need  hardly  take  account  of  it  in  dis- 
cussing the  general  conditions  of  preaching. 
Here  we  mention  this  force  for  a  dif- 
ferent  reason.      Because   it   is    sometimes 
coupled  with  piety,  with  that  unselfishness 
which  follows  from  the  devotion   to    the 


56  ON  PREACHING,     [sect,  xviii. 

higher  life,  we  might  imagine  that  piety  is 
the  real  spring  of  this  commanding  "power  ; 
and  hence  most  rehgious  people,  if  asked 
what  they  thought  was  the  main  cause 
of  the  modern  decay  in  preaching,  would 
answer  directly  that  the  main  cause  was 
want  of  piety ;  and  that  if  this  want  were 
supplied,  all  the  arguments  of  the  present 
argument  might  be  laid  aside  as  idle  talk. 

Thus  we  come  to  a  quality  of  the  first 
importance  to  the  preacher,  and  one  which 
has  been  postponed  to  this  chapter  only 
because  its  logical  place  forbade  us  to 
approach  it  at  the  outset. 

§  1 8.  We  need  only  consider  the  number 
of  cases  in  which  men  of  real  piety  fail  to 
interest  or  to  influence  their  congregations, 
to  demonstrate  that  this  quality  by  itself 
is  quite  insufficient  to  produce  the  effects 
generally  attributed  to  it.  But  we  cannot 
so  easily  convince  serious  and  religious 
people  that,  though  of  vast  importance,  it  is 
not  really  an  essential  to  good  preaching. 


SECT.  XVIII.]    PERSONAL  CAUSES.  57 

Yet  there  have  been,  there  are,  and  there 
will  be,  great  and  effective  preachers  who 
are  not  remarkable  for  piety.  This  will  more 
readily  be  granted  when  we  consider  preach- 
ing by  itself,  and  take  instances  from  those 
orders  and  churches  where  this  duty  is  iso- 
lated from  other  functions,  and  where  the 
man  who  occupies  the  pulpit  is  not  at  other 
times  in  close  relation  to  his  hearers. 

The  opposite  and  prevalent  opinion  is 
based  altogether  on  our  experience  of  resi- 
dent or  parochial  clergy,  whose  weekly 
duties  are  more  important  than  their  ser- 
mons. These  men,  as  has  already  been 
explained,  live  under  the  closest  supervision, 
and  if  their  daily  life  contrasts  with  the  ideal 
aspirations  which  they  inculcate,  and  ought 
to  inculcate,  upon  their  hearers,  the  discord 
between  their  precept  and  their  example  is 
immediately  felt,  and  they  are  set  down 
as  something  like  hypocrites,  or  at  least  as 
men  so  inconsistent  that  their  counsels 
have  no  weight.     So  it  is  that  the  diffi- 


58  ON  PREACHING.       [sect.  xix. 

culties  of  modern  preaching  react  upon  each 
other,  and  are  so  closely  related  that  the 
discussion  of  each  suggests  the  others.      If 
we  regard  the  preacher  merely  as  such,  we 
must  take  him  in  that  position  by  itself,  and 
consider  him  just  as  he  is  in  his  pulpit,  or 
as  strangers  would  judge  him  who  heard 
him  for  the  first  time.      It  is  not  necessary 
that  he  should  possess  personal  piety,  or 
presuppose  it  in  himself.      He  may   give 
great  expositions  of  dogma;  he  may  give 
splendid  exhortations  to  a  holy  life;  and, 
provided  he  be  really  in  earnest, — provided 
his    enthusiasm  be  not    fictitious,   or    his 
earnestness  assumed, — he  may  be  a  great 
champion  of  his  faith.      For  he  may  feel 
all  the  value  of  goodness,  he  may  sincerely 
believe  in  the  truth  and  value  of  his  creed 
and  yet  he  may  not  have  attained    that 
inner  calm  of  the   soul,  that  closer  walk 
with  God,  which  is   the    privilege  of  the 
very  few  among  men. 

§  1 9.  It  may  seem  strange  to  insist  upon 


SECT.  XIX.]   PERSONAL  CAUSES.  59 

the  non-essential  character  of  piety  ;  nay, 
it  may  seem  to  many  that  any  one  anxious 
for  the  reform  of  the  pulpit  cannot  pos- 
sibly put  too  much  stress  upon  it,  for  that, 
whether  it  be  logically  an  essential  or  not, 
it  is  practically  the  great  thing  to  attain 
in  all  the  relations  of  life.  So  strong  will 
this  feeling  be  in  many  readers,  that  they 
will  possibly  attribute  want  of  religious 
earnestness  to  the  man  who  detracts  in 
aught  from  the  paramount  importance  of 
this  condition.  But  in  a  survey  of  this 
matter  on  philosophic  grounds  we  must  not 
despise  logical  questions,  for  we  may  be  sure 
that  if  we  do,  it  will  lead  somewhere  to  mis- 
takes in  practice.  This  is  particularly  the 
case  with  the  facts  now  under  discussion. 

In  the  first  place,  if  intense  pidty  in 
every  preacher  affords  the  only  hope  of  a 
reform  and  rehabilitation  of  the  pulpit,  we 
may  give  up  the  case  as  lost  For  the 
history  of  our  race  shows  that  intense 
piety   or   complete    devotion   to   the    will 


6o  ON  PREACHING.        [sect.  xix. 

and  service  of  God  is  far  rarer  than  even 
great  moral  purity  or  great  intellectual 
ability.  It  is  the  attainment  or  privilege  of 
the  few.  A  great  spiritual  outburst,  such 
as  that  predicted  by  the  prophet  Joel, 
is  simply  miraculous,  and  therefore  does 
not  come  within  the  prospect  of  human 
speculation. 

Secondly,  apart  from  these  general  con- 
siderations, the  belief  that  this  piety  is  an 
indispensable  requisite  for  religious  teaching 
hinders  many  of  our  best  and  most  earnest 
men  from  undertaking  that  duty  in  their 
church,  and  thus  actually  injures  the  cause 
for  which  it  is  so  scrupulous.  The  man 
who  hesitates  because  he  feels  no  consum- 
ing ardour  for  the  propagation  of  his  faith 
and  the  moral  improvement  of  his  fellows, 
often  shows  by  his  very  hesitation  the  high 
ideal  he  has  of  his  duty,  and  so  far,  his  very 
fitness  for  the  calling  which  he  abandons. 
If  he  were  persuaded  that  in  this,  as  in 
other  professions,  earnestness  and  diligence 


s^CT.iLVX..']  PERSONAL  CAUSES.  6i 

are  sufficient  moral  conditions,  he  would 
certainly  become  a  useful  member  of  the 
ministry,  possibly  an  eminent  one,  and  his 
enthusiasm  would  increase  with  his  closer 
knowledge  of  the  great  work  upon  which 
he  had  entered. 

There  is  a  certain  inconsistency  in  our 
judgment  about  the  ministry  of  Christian 
Churches.  On  the  one  hand,  most  of  the 
ordination  services  postulate  an  inward 
calling  in  the  candidate, — a  special  motion 
of  the  Spirit :  they  do  not  recognise  any 
other  motive  as  lawful,  and  assume  that 
the  clergy  of  the  Church  are,  each  and 
all,  men  who  are  constrained  by  a  Divine 
impulse  to  enter  upon  their  duties.  The 
general  public,  on  the  other  hand,  and 
the  majority  even  of  serious  parents,  re- 
gard the  ministry  as  a  profession  to  be 
ranked  with  law  or  medicine,  and  they 
assume  that  any  man  who  feels  a  turn  for 
it,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  is 
entitled  to  enter  it.     This  is  indeed  a  true 


62  ON  PREACHING.       [sect.  xix. 

and  practical  view,  because,  if  the  higher  re- 
quirement were  maintained,  so  few  would 
dare  to  present  themselves  as  to  render 
our  pulpits  empty,  and  the  maintenance  of 
our  churches  impossible.  Even  the  most 
pious  bishop  would  hesitate  to  enforce  such 
a  condition,  were  he  given  an  insight  into 
the  hearts  of  the  candidates  ;  nor  would  he 
venture  to  reject  those  who  were  honestly 
disposed  to  do  their  duty  as  professional 
men,  without  possessing  a  higher  calling. 

This  inconsistency  of  view  is  a  very 
serious  thing,  and  contributes  not  a  little 
to  weaken  the  power  of  our  modern  preach- 
ing. For  the  candidate  often  enters  upon 
his  duties  with  this  stain  upon  his  con- 
science, that  his  ordination  presupposes  far 
higher  motives  and  a  far  purer  character 
than  he  feels  himself  to  possess.  He 
stands  at  the  threshold  of  his  ministry 
with  the  jar  of  this  discord  within  him. 
He  starts  with  the  consciousness  of  a  false 
position  ;  or  still  worse,  he  settles  for  him- 


SECT.  XIX.]   PERSONAL  CAUSES.  6^ 

self  that  the  requirement  of  the  high  ideal 
is  but  a  formal  demand,  which  expects  no 
fulfilment.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  with  these 
antecedents  his  preaching  is  unreal,  and 
his  life  without  earnestness  }  Yet  such 
are  the  results  which  might  he  produced  by 
over-strictness  in  demanding  the  quality  of 
piety  in  our  preachers. 

This  criticism  does  not  apply  to  preach- 
ing only  ;  it  is  equally  true  in  the  case  of 
all  the  higher  offices  in  our  churches, 
which  require  sense  and  vigour  in  dealing 
with  human  affairs.  Thus  we  need  not 
hesitate  to  affirm  that  an  honest  and 
sensible,  though  worldly  man,  if  en- 
dowed with  a  quick  insight  into  charac- 
ter, would  make  a  better  bishop,  in  the 
strictest  sense  of  better,  than  a  simple  and 
unintellectual  man  of  the  deepest  piety, 
whose  very  devotion  to  things  unseen 
leaves  him  liable  to  deception  by  hypo- 
crites, and  to  mistakes  in  action  through 
the  influence  of  selfish  and  designing  men. 


64  ON  PREACHING.        [sect.  xx. 

The  latter  would  be  a  better  Christian,  no 
doubt, — a  purer  example  to  those  who 
could  contemplate  his  private  life, — but  a 
worse  bishop  than  his  worldly  brother. 

§  20.  It  will  be  hard  to  prevent  illogi- 
cal readers — and  they  are  many — from 
thinking  that  these  reservations  to  the 
paramount  claims  of  piety  imply  a  want 
of  appreciation  of  its  dignity  and  beauty. 
It  is  indeed  most  ungrateful  to  urge 
anything  against  that  one  feature  in  man- 
kind, so  rare,  so  holy,  so  majestic,  that 
in  this,  and  in  this  alone,  we  may  be  said 
to  approach  the  perfection  of  a  future 
state.  To  say  that  such  a  quality  gives 
weight  to  a  man's  teaching,  adds  convic- 
tion to  his  arguments,  disarms  the  criticism 
of  his  mistakes,  lends  an  ineffable  charm  to 
his  persuasion,  is  to  state  mere  truisms 
in  which  all  will  concur.  It  is  indeed  ab- 
surd to  say  that  without  education,  without 
any  natural  gifts,  without  special  training, 
it  will   make  a  man   preach  well  or  elo- 


SECT.  XXI.]    PERSONAL  CA  USES.  65 

quently.  But  its  influence,  especially  in  a 
fixed  society,  where  its  beauty  radiates 
incessantly  on  those  around  it,  is  always 
vast  and  constant,  and  we  may  safely 
agree  with  those  who  declare  that  with 
the  increase  of  this  grace  our  preaching 
will  gain  in  power  and  effect,  and  that 
without  it  general  success  will  be  impos- 
sible. We  have  made  our  reservations  ;  we 
have  stated  our  limitations  ;  let  no  one 
imagine  that  on  this  account  we  underrate 
the  value  of  piety.  It  is  a  gift  of  the  Spirit, 
rare,  like  genius ;  without  a  miracle  i1 
will  never  become  common  among  men, 
but  the  oftener  it  occurs,  the  more  cer- 
tainly will  the  power  and  the  persuasion 
of  preaching  increase  throughout  the 
world. 

IV.  Personal  Causes — Contimied. 

§  2 1.  But  if  piety  without  ability,  or  piety 
without  firmness  of  character,  is  very  often 


66  ON  PREACHING,      [sect.  xxii. 

an  unsafe  guide  in  human  affairs,  so  piety 
without  learning  is  seldom  of  much  effect 
in  the  pulpit.  I  do  not  merely  mean  that 
general  learning,  without  which  all  speakers 
become  thin  and  jejune,  and  weary  their 
hearers  with  constant  repetitions  and  with 
platitudes.  This  is  indeed  important,  and 
requires  considerable  leisure  and  ability 
for  its  acquisition.  But  we  must  lay 
even  more  stress  on  that  special  theo- 
logical training,  without  which  no  man,  in 
any  religion,  or  reasonable  system  of  theo- 
logy, can  properly  teach  and  explain  to 
his  congregation  the  dogmas  they  should 
believe  and  the  duties  they  should  perform. 
It  will  be  'well  to  spend  a  few  moments 
in  considering  the  necessity  of  both  forms 
of  learning  to  the  modern  preacher. 

§  2  2.  As  to  the  first  or  general  culture,  all 
good  rhetoricians,  from  Greek  days  to  our 
own,  have  ever  insisted  upon  its  necessity. 
The  two  men  who  tell  us  most  about  the 
art  of  eloquence  in  Greece, — Isocrates  and 


SECT.  XXII.]     PERSONAL  CA  USES.  67 

Aristotle, — put  it  in  the  foreground.  The 
proper  invention  of  striking  ideas,  though  in 
part  depending  on  natural  ability,  depends 
still  more  on  having  the  mind  fully  stocked 
with  all  kinds  of  knowledge,  from  which 
to  draw,  like  the  householder  out  of  his 
treasure,  things  new  and  old..  Cicero  and 
Quintilian,  the  greatest  names  among  the 
Romans,  in  practical  and  theoretical  rhe- 
toric, insist  upon  the  same  thing. 

I  remember  seeing  the  most  popular 
evangelical  preacher  of  his  day  in  Ireland 
borrowing  an  encyclopaedia  from  a  friend, 
who  asked  him  what  need  he,  a  busy  and 
devoted  minister,  could  have  for  such  a 
book.  He  answered  that  it  was  necessary 
to  keep  storing  his  mind  with  all  manner 
of  information,  otherwise  he  could  not 
make  his  sermons  interesting  to  his 
hearers.  This  was  a  practical  man,  a 
man  of  sound  common  sense,  as  well  as 
of  deep  piety.  He  had  probably  never 
read  the  advices  of  Aristotle  and  Cicero  ; 


68  ON  PREACHING.     [SECT.  xxii. 

he  felt  out  the  right  theory  by  his  native 
intelligence. 

This  general  culture  is  all  the  more 
necessary  now  that  our  congregations 
have  become  more  educated,  and  naturally 
desire  an  intellectual  flavour  in  their 
spiritual  food.  For  if  the  preacher  be 
inferior  in  culture  to  his  hearers, — and  this 
he  cannot  fail  to  show  every  time  he 
addresses  them, — he  is  more  likely  to  excite 
contempt  than  respect.  This  is  particu- 
larly the  case  when  his  ignorance  leads 
him  to  make  blunders  in  his  allusions  or 
illustrations,  to  show  credulousness  or 
scepticism  in  the  wrong  place  as  regards 
physical  laws  and  matters  of  history — nay, 
even  to  cite  facts  or  names  inaccurately, 
and  show  that  they  are  only  known  to 
him  by  accident  and  from  inferior  sources. 
These  trifles  often  destroy  the  effect  of  a 
good  and  solid  discourse,  and  are  among 
the  most  common  causes  of  that  contempt 
and  indifference    shown  by  the  educated 


SECT.  XXIII.]    PERSONAL  CA  USES.  69 

world  to  our  ordinary  preaching.  This  is 
the  proper  vindication  of  those  bishops 
or  churches  that  insist  upon  their  clergy 
undergoing  an  university  training  previous 
to  ordination.  Even  this  is,  of  course, 
quite  insufficient.  The  mere  passing  of 
an  arts'  course  is  only  the  first  beginning 
of  an  education,  but  it  is  the  beginning  ; 
and  a  man  who  has  thus  overcome  the 
first  obstacles  to  acquiring  information, 
and  knows  the  grammar  of  language  and 
the  rudiments  of  science,  can  afterwards, 
without  any  excessive  tax  upon  his  powers, 
go  on  towards  the  higher  culture  which 
will  give  him  power  as  a  public  speaker. 

§  23.  We  may  pass  from  this  topic  to 
the  special  training  required  in  theology  by 
means  of  an  intermediate  branch  of  study, 
not  peculiar  to  theologians,  and  yet  a 
special  study  in  itself — the  study  of  rhetoric. 
And  here  perhaps  the  intelligent  public 
will  not  be  so  ready  to  agree  with  me  as 
on    the    former   requisite.       The    general 


^ 


70  ON  PREACHING.      [sect,  xxiii. 

want  of  culture  is  admitted  to  be  one  of 
the  greatest  and  most  constant  causes  of 
failure  in  the  pulpit ;  but  people  are  not 
so  ready  to  acknowledge  the  usefulness 
of  the  special  study  of  public  speaking  as 
such  to  the  preacher.  For  we  moderns 
differ  in  this  completely  from  the  ancients. 
To  them  extempore  speaking  was  very 
rare  and  exceptional ;  indeed  it  would  have 
been  thought  disrespectful  to  a  serious 
audience.  They  studied  and  analysed  the 
nature  of  persuasion  by  logical  clearness, 
by  elegant  expression,  by  appropriate 
emotion,  by  graceful  action.  They  were 
successful,  too,  in  their  efforts,  for  they 
produced  models  of  eloquence  which  have 
served  the  world  ever  since,  and  which 
will  probably  never  be  excelled.  It  may 
also  be  assumed  that  these,  the  work  of 
great  masters,  are  not  more  remarkable 
in  their  way  than  the  results  produced  in 
speakers  of  ordinary  abilities  by  the  use  of 
fixed  methods  and  orderly  procedure.     We 


SECT.  XXIII.]      PERSONAL  CAUSES.  71 

may  be  sure  that  the  average  of  public 
speaking  among  people  so  trained  was  in- 
finitely higher  than  that  of  our  time. 

For  now  a  sort  of  suspicion  or  con- 
tempt hangs  over  the  art  of  rhetoric,  as 
artificial  and  affected.  It  is  thought 
enough  for  a  man  to  have  clear  ideas,  and 
to  learn  to  speak  them  forcibly,  as  best  he 
can,  by  his  own  practice.  All  suspicion 
of  rounded  periods  and  studied  emotion, 
of  regulated  pathos  and  factitious  indigna- 
tion, excites  ridicule  in  any  public  speaking, 
but  more  than  ridicule  in  so  solemn  an 
office  as  that  of  preaching. 

Now  all  this  feeling  against  what  is  called 
the  rhetoric  of  the  schools  is  quite  sound 
and  true,  but  wholly  beside  the  point. 
The  old  Greeks  would  have  said  the  ver) 
same  thing,  but  would  have  added  that  it 
was  a  criticism,  not  of  the  use  of  rhetoric, 
but  only  of  bad  rhetoric.  There  are  arts — 
such  as  architecture — where  it  is  interesting, 
and  therefore  proper,  to  show  constructioti. 


72  ON  PREACHING,    [sect,  xxiil 

In  others,  such  as  tailoring,  it  is  part 
of  the  artist's  duty  to  conceal  it.  In 
none  is  it  expedient  to  show  the  refuse, 
the  failures,  the  untidinesses  of  the  work. 
The  modern  public  is  so  unused  to  real 
rhetoric  (as  an  art)  that  we  set  down  the 
vulgarities  and  failures  of  rhetoricians  as 
the  natural  outcome  of  their  science.  It 
must  be  owing  to  this  strange  misappre- 
hension concerning  rhetoric,  that  in  our 
principal  divinity  schools  among  Protest- 
ants no  care  is  taken  to  train  men  in  the 
externals  of  eloquence^  in  the  proper  use 
of  the  voice  and  of  the  hands,  still  less 
in  the  proper  method  of  constructing  a 
persuasive  discourse  by  an  adherence  to 
reasonable  rules.  There  are  college  societies, 
which  are  practising  grounds  ;  but  as  no 
censor  is  there  formally  to  criticise  de- 
fects and  correct  them  on  the  spot,  such 
practice  generally  gives  the  student  no- 
thing but  fluency,  and  even  hardens  him  in 
all  the  faults  which  he  may  have  possessed 


jECT.  XXIII.]    PERSONAL  CA  USES.  73 

at  the  outset  or  acquired.  While  theo- 
logical learning,  of  which  we  shall  speak 
presently,  is  fairly  provided,  hardly  a 
thought  is  given  to  the  expression  of  that 
learning,  without  which  it  is  dead,  and,  as 
it  were,  buried  in  a  tomb. 

If  the  greatest  speakers  of  the  day  were 
consulted,  they  would  at  once  confess  that 
their  successes  have  been  in  proportion  to 
their  preparation,  and  that  their  apparently 
most  sudden  and  inspired  flights  were  the 
result  of  careful  calculation.  Are  we  then 
to  despise  this  sort  of  persuasion  in  preach- 
ing ?  Are  we  to  say  that  the  smallest 
artifice  in  the  pulpit  is  an  offence 
against  its  dignity,  and  to  be  avoided  as 
unworthy?  Are  we  to  insist  that  preachers 
now-a-days  are,  like  the  Apostles,  to  take 
no  heed  what  they  shall  say,  for  that  the 
Spirit  will  give  them  utterance  ?  For  this 
too  is  a  reason  why  the  study  of  rhetoric 
is  discouraged  among  religious  people. 
Here  we  again  stand  face  to  face  with  that 


74  ON  PREACHING,    [sect,  xxiii. 

very  noble  but  ideal  view  of  the  preacher 
as  a  man  of  intense  piety,  inspired  to 
speak  with  more  than  mortal  power  and 
wisdom,  and  trusting  implicitly  to  the 
Divine  Spirit  to  give  him  words.  With- 
out for  one  moment  denying  the  existence 
of  such  men  at  all  ages  of  the  Church,  we 
may  fairly  say  that  to  depend  on  such 
grounds  in  ordinary  preaching  is  not  only 
chimerical,  but  tends  to  prevent  the 
preacher  from  adopting  the  lawful  means 
of  persuasion  placed  within  his  reach. 
He  might  as  well  start  upon  a  voyage 
round  the  world  and  expect  that  the 
power  of  strange  tongues  would  be  given 
him  to  preach  to  the  nations  he  found  on 
his  way. 

If  by  the  subtlest  logic,  by  the  most 
deliberate  emotion,  a  man  can  force  his 
own  deepest  convictions  upon  his  hearers 
— I  say  Jiis  own  deepest  convictions,  not 
mere  official  topics — then  such  artistic 
rhetoric  is  not  only  defensible,  but  strongly 


SECT.  XXIV.]    PERSONAL  CAUSES.  75 

to  be  encouraged.  The  true  effects 
of  eloquence  are  far  n:iore  commonly 
attained  by  repressing  than  by  forcing 
emotion,  by  avoiding  than  by  displaying 
logic — in  fact,  by  straining  no  chord  of 
sympathy  in  the  hearer.  Thus  real  rhetoric 
w^ill  preserve  us  from  exaggeration  or  false- 
ness of  axiy  kind — a  fault  fatal  to  all  sound 
conception  of  it.  If  our  pulpits  at'e  to 
regain  their  power,  men  will  have  to  study 
this  art ;  they  will  have  to  realise  that 
though  random  talking  may  at  times  be 
effective  upon  the  platform,  it  will  never  be 
fruitful  or  impressive  from  the  pulpit. 

§  24.  We  come  now  to  the  last  of 
those  personal  defects  which  hinder  the 
effectiveness  of  preaching.  It  is  that 
want  of  learning  which  does  not  consist 
in  general  absence  of  culture,  or  in  the 
general  absence  of  rhetorical  training, 
but  in  the  want  of  that  special  theo- 
logical training  in  which  the  layman  ex- 
pects   the    preacher    to    be    his    superior. 


76  ON  PREACHING,     [sect.  xxiv. 

This  want  exists  in  all  kinds  of  creeds 
and  sects,  and  therefore  embodies  a  capital 
fact.  The  teacher  is  supposed  to  know 
more  than  those  whom  he  teaches,  or  else 
how  can  they  look  upon  him  with  respect? 
Perhaps  a  qualified  exception  to  this 
general  statement  may  be  made  in  the  case 
of  those  extreme  Protestants,  who  think  the 
private  judgment  of  any  layman  as  good 
as  the  best  professional  opinion  which  can 
be  had.  But  this  theory,  though  held  by 
so  many  respectable  and  pious  people, 
is  too  unreasonable  to  be  considered  a 
serious  limitation  of  our  general  state- 
ment. Still  it  has  its  effect,  inasmuch  as 
it  affords  some  sort  of  pretext  or  excuse 
to  young  men  in  Protestant  communities 
who  offer  themselves  for  the  ministry  with- 
out any  special  training.  There  is  a  sort 
of  vague  belief  abroad  that  to  feel  strongly 
on  the  subject,  and  know  one's  Bible,  is 
sufficient  to  warrant  a  man  in  assuming 
the  office  of  a  teacher  of  religion. 


SECT.  XXIV.]     PERSONAL  CA  USES.  77 

If  we  only  think  for  a  moment  what 
it  really  means  to  hiow  one's  Bible  it  will 
explode  this  theory.  To  know  the  Bible 
in  any  reasonable  sense,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
form  any  independent  judgment  about  it, 
implies  at  least  a  good  knowledge  of 
Greek,  in  many  cases  a  knowledge  of 
Hebrew,  and,  besides,  a  careful  study  of 
the  development  of  Christian  opinion 
about  the  inspiration  and  authorship  of 
the  various  books.  These  good  people  talk 
as  if  the  whole  volume  had  been  penned 
at  once  and  directly  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  not  by  a  variety  of  men  in  divers 
ages,  under  various  conditions,  and  doubt- 
less with  a  varying  share  of  inspiration. 
Probably,  now-a-days,  no  one  in  his  senses 
would  assert  that  the  Book  of  Esther  and 
the  Gospel  of  St.  John  did  not  differ  in 
this  last  respect.  Accordingly,  the  very 
people  who  lay  the  greatest  stress  on 
private  judgment  should  learn  that  to 
attain   this   liberty  they  must   undergo  a 


78  ON  PREACHING.       [sect.  xxiv. 

long  period  of  careful  and  critical  study  of 
their  Bible  as  a  collection  of  historical 
documents,  often  obscure,  and  sometimes 
apparently  inconsistent.  The  ignorant 
lay  preacher,  who  dares  to  offer  an 
opinion  on  these  difficult  problems,  is 
really  the  most  abject  slave  of  tradition  ; 
he  is  led  blindly  by  no  more  critical  guide 
than  the  headings  of  the  chapters  inserted 
by  the  Church  whose  authority  he  repu- 
diates, or  the  opinion  of  his  Sunday  school 
teacher,  which  he  learned  when  a  child. ' 
He  may  assume,  for  example,  as  an  axiom, 
on  no  better  evidence,  that  the  Song  of 
Solomon  is  an  allegory  representing  Christ 
and  the  Church.  Nay,  the  very  Bible,  the 
very  collection  of  books  whose  authority 
is  set  up  against  that  of  the  Church,  is  a 
collection  gathered  and  sifted  by  the 
Church,  and  only  handed  down  to  him 
under  its  care  and  authority.  In  no  wise, 
therefore,  can  the  preacher  who  does  more 
than  preach  simple  morals  escape  a   de- 


SECT.  XXV.]    PERSONAL  CA  USES.  79 

liberate  and  careful  study  of  his  Bible, 
except  by  a  blind  submission  to  the  tradi- 
ditional  creed  of  his  Church. 

And  surely  every  effective  preacher  must 
do  more  than  preach  mere  morals.  The 
human  race  has  hitherto  been  led,  not  by 
precept,  but  by  dogma.  It  is  not  the  en- 
sample  of  a  holy  life,  but  the  assertion  of  a 
separate  creed,  of  new  privileges  resting  on 
new  beliefs,  which  has  reformed  the  world 
once  and  again.  If,  therefore,  in  the 
present  times  of  discussion,  of  historical 
criticism,  of  speculative  interest  in  religion, 
a  preacher  avoids  dogma,  he  is  not  likely 
to  produce  any  permanent  effect. 

§  25.  All  these  considerations  go  to 
prove  that  theological  training  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  raise  the  condition  of  the 
pulpit,  and  that  it  is  not  mere  ornament, 
but  an  essential  qualification.  No  illustra- 
tion of  this  truth  will  be  so  convincing  as 
the  contemplation  of  those  cases  where  the 
denial  of  it  is  confessed.     There  have  been 


8o  ON  PREACHING,      [sect.  xxv. 

of  late  years  many  cases  of  preaching 
being  adopted,  from  serious  conviction,  by 
middle-aged  men  of  other  professions — 
soldiers,  lawyers,  engineers — who  have  left 
their  calling  to  follow  after  Christ,  as  they 
conscientiously  believe.  These  men  wait 
for  no  training ;  they  do  not  seek,  and 
could  not  obtain  from  any  sensible  bishop, 
formal  ordination  ;  they  are  known  as  lay 
preachers,  and  attract  audiences  often  from 
the  very  contrast  of  their  previous  calling  or 
character  to  that  which  they  have  suddenly 
adopted.  It  is  most  remarkable  that  these 
men,  however  pious,  however  zealous, 
however  popular  among  their  co-reli- 
gionists, however  able  in  their  former 
professions,  have  one  and  all,  so  far  as  I 
know,  failed  in  making  their  mark  as 
preachers  beyond  the  narrowest  bounds. 
Their  fame  is  transient  ;  their  discourses, 
if  published,  find  no  general  sale ;  they 
come  and  go  without  leaving  any 
perceptible    trace    on    public    opinion,    or 


SECT.  XXVI.]    PERSONAL  CAUSES.  8i 

redeeming  in  any  high  degree  the  decay- 
ing reputation  of  their  assumed  profession. 
And  yet  if  zeal  without  knowledge  could 
work  great  effects,  we  might  expect  that 
some  of  them,  at  least,  would  be  re- 
garded as  lights  in  the  spiritual  firmament 
of  the  age.  There  may  be  a  few  isolated 
cases  where  this  is  so,  but  to  assert  for 
them  generally  any  great  position  such  as 
that  of  the  Hebrew  lay  preachers,  the  pro- 
phets,— if  indeed  these  prophets  were  lay 
preachers, — would  be  simply  unhistorical. 
§  26.  This  is  not  the  place  to  dis- 
cuss in  detail  what  theological  learn- 
ing is  requisite  to  avoid  these  mis- 
takes, and  to  raise  the  preacher  to  the 
position  which  he  ought  to  hold  as  an 
authoritative  teacher  of  his  faith.  The 
general  outline  is  plain  enough.  First  of 
all,  he  must  thoroughly  understand  the 
documents  on  which  his  faith  is  based,  the 
historical  credentials  with  which  he  is 
provided.     What  this  implies  has  already 


82  ON  PREACHING,     [sect.  xxvL 

been  indicated,  and  through  such  prepara- 
tion alone  will  he  avoid  the  pitiful  exhibi- 
tion, not  unfrequent  now-a-days,  of  hearing 
himself  confuted  out  of  the  very  docu- 
ments of  his  creed,  which  he  cannot  read 
in  their  original  language.  In  the  next 
place,  he  must  know  the  history  of  opinion 
in  his  Church  concerning  these  documents 
— in  fact,  the  history  of  dogma  developed 
from  them.  For  it  requires  no  ordinary  man, 
no  single  man's  judgment,  to  gather  up  all 
the  teaching  of  these  many  and  various 
books  into  a  system.  The  controversies  of 
the  early  Christian  Church  show  how  diffi- 
cult and  gradual  was  the  formation  of  such 
a  body  of  Christian  doctrine  as  could  be- 
come a  proper  system.  Lastly,  we  must 
add  the  history  of  the  ritual  he  adopts,  if 
he  does  not  mean  to  repeat  it  as  a  parrot, 
but  to  understand  the  why  and  wJierefore 
in  the  details  of  ceremonies. 

I   will    not    add   a  knowledge   of  con- 
troversy, lest  we   should   go   too    far   and 


[sect.  XXVI.     PERSONAL  CA  USES.  83 

demand  too  much  for  the  standard  of 
any  large  profession.  Yet  the  history  of 
dogma  cannot  but  consist  mainly  of  con- 
troversies, though  in  our  day  these  are  of 
less  importance  than  the  broad  principles 
of  natural  religion,  vi^hich  must  be  defended 
against  sceptics  on  philosophical  grounds. 
He  that  vv^ill  approach  this  kind  of  contro- 
versy— and  who  can  now  avoid  it  ? — must 
be  skilled  in  metaphysics  ;  he  must  have 
examined  the  conditions  of  knowing  "and 
being,  as  the  philosophers  say ;  he  must 
meet  subtleties  with  counter  -  subtleties, 
and  show  that  even  in  the  handling  of 
such  weapons  he  is  no  despicable  adver- 
sary. This  is  the  kind  of  man  who,  in  the 
days  of  Louis  XIV.  and  of  Queen  Anne, 
raised  the  Christian  pulpit  to  a  position  of 
power  and  authority,  not  only  among  the 
poor  and  simple,  but  among  the  most  cul- 
tivated and  refined,  and  even  the  most 
worldly  and  critical  thinkers  of  the  day. 
This  long  catalogue  of  personal  defects 


84  ON  PREACHING,     [sect.  xxvi. 

in  the  modern  preacher  will  seem  to  most 
people  sufficient  in  itself  to  account  for 
the  failure  of  the  pulpit,  at  least  as  regards 
the  higher  classes  ;  and  they  will  perhaps 
think  that  no  more  need  have  been  said. 
But  these  personal  causes  would  be  easy 
enough  to*  combat  were  it  not  for  the  wider 
historical  and  social  conditions  lying  be- 
hind them  and  making  reform  so  difficult. 
I  will  not,  however,  go  over  old  ground 
again,  but  will  endeavour,  before  speaking 
of  possible  remedies,  to  illustrate  the  effect 
of  the  faults  now  discussed  on  the  actual 
preaching  of  the  day.  This  is  the  more 
necessary  as  some  readers  may  be  impa- 
tient to  know  what  is  meant  by  the  failure 
of  the  pulpit  apart  from  the  complaints 
made  by  thoughtless  and  irreligious  people. 
And  even  supposing  that  the  fact  will  be 
generally  admitted,  there  may  be  critics  who 
will  say  that  matters  are  not  worse  than 
might  be  expected,  that,  after  all,  more  good 
is  done  than  people  think,  and  so  forth.     I 


SECT.  XXVII.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  85 

do  not  deny  the  good  it  does,  but  am  here 
concerned  with  what  it  ought  to  do. 


V.  Specimens  of  Defective  Types. 

§  27.  It  is  probably  oftener  due  to  de- 
fective training  than  to  want  of  ability 
that  men  make  habitual  mistakes  in  their 
preaching.  They  fall  into  extremes  and 
are  guilty  of  exaggerations  because  they 
have  not  been  carefully  warned  to  main- 
tain the  balance  of  Christian  doctrine  ;  be- 
cause they  have  not  been  warned  agafnst 
faults  in  rhetoric,  against  exaggeration  of 
their  favourite  points,  against  an  over  de- 
mand on  their  hearers'  sympathy  ;  in  fact, 
against  all  the  faults  which  an  inexperi- 
enced speaker  is  sure  to  make.  But  as 
most  of  our  various  ministers  of  religion 
are  not  trained  in  the  manner  as  well  as 
the  matter  of  their  discourses,  it  is  rare  to 
find  a  man  who,  by  his  natural  genius, 
avoids  these  faults.     For  open  criticism  of 


86  ON  PREACHING,   [sect,  xxviii. 

sermons  is,  by  the  nature  of  the  case,  ex- 
cluded, and  the  preacher  is  the  last  to  hear 
the  censures  with  which  the  suppressed 
critics  indemnify  themselves  at  home. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  most 
general  types  of  exaggeration  or  defect 
which  may  be  found  in  the  average  preach- 
ing of  our  day. 

§  2  8.  I  will  take  first  what  may  be  called 
the  Logical  Extreme,  into  which  men  fall 
who  think  that  everything  ought  to  be 
clearly  proved,  and  that  they  cannot  enforce 
a  doctrine  without  a  regular  demonstration 
deducing  it  from  higher  principles. 

Perhaps  the  most  common  case  of  this 
extreme  is  to  be  found  in  those  many 
discourses  which  profess  to  explain  the 
doctrine  of  the  Atonement  of  Christ  as 
a  sort  of  bargain,  or  equivalent  offered  to 
God  for  the  sins  of  mankind.  The  de- 
mands of  the  Creator  are  set  down  with 
painful  precision,  as  if  they  were  those  of  an 
exacting  creditor ;  and  we  are  told  that  the 


SECT.  XXVIII.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  87 

magnitude  of  the  payment  must  be  exactly 
proportioned  to  that  of  the  debt.  No 
severer  indictment  can  be  brought,  not 
only  against  the  mercy  but  against  the 
justice  of  the  Deity,  tlian  this  account  of 
vicarious  punishment ;  and  it  is  very  likely 
now-a-days,  when  people  think  freely  on 
such  questions,  to  shake  them  in  their  very 
belief  of  the  Atonement. 

Similar  to  this  is  the  old  argument,  now 
only  to  be  heard  in  remote  country  places, 
that  the  eternal  punishment  of  sinners  is 
to  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  sin  against 
an  infinite  Being  is  an  act  of  infinite  enor- 
mity, and  therefore  necessitates  infinite 
punishment.  The  subterfuge  that  the 
condition  of  the  damned  is  one  in  which 
they  are  perpetually  guilty  of  new  sin, 
and  therefore  subject  to  a  constant  renewal 
of  their  lease  of  punishment,  is,  if  pos- 
sible, more  unreasonable.  Both  views, 
when  adopted  in  their  full  enormity,  base 
themselves  on  the  theory  that  the  Deity, 


88  ON  PREACHING,  [sect,  xxviii. 

being  an  absolutely  despotic  Ruler,  has  a 
right  to  do  what  He  pleases  with  His  own 
Creation.  To  this  theory  we  shall  return 
in  connection  with  another  type  of  ser- 
mon. 

The  defect  in  all  this  kind  of  argument  is 
that  it  pretends  to  discover  laws  and  to  lay 
them  down  with  logical  precision  in  matters 
where  such  precision  is  totally  out  of  place 
or  unattainable.  The  preacher  may  think 
the  whole  matter  perfectly  clear  ;  he  may 
assert  boldly  that  there  can  be  no  mystery 
about  it,  that  he  can  deduce  it  accurately 
from  various  texts  of  Scripture.  Such 
clearness  is  surely  the  result  of  ignorance, 
of  apprehending  but  a  small  part  of  a  com- 
plex problem,  of  feeling  a  false  confidence 
in  one's  own  powers  of  discernment  or  spiri- 
tual endowment.  There  is  no  preaching 
more  offensive  to  educated  men  than  this, 
which  puts  forward  with  unblushing  assur- 
ance all  manner  of  assumptions  and  irre- 
levancies   as  cogent   and    irrefragable  de- 


SECT.  XXIX.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  89 

monstrations.  For  theology  is  a  science 
full  of  mystery ;  we  are  met  almost  at 
every  step  by  the  unknowable.  If  we 
attain  in  such  a  science  to  clear  convictions 
it  is  not  by  the  logical  apparatus  of  elabo- 
rate syllogism. 

§  29.  The  opposite  pole  in  preaching, 
from  which  the  former  is  a  reaction,  or 
which  it  may  produce  by  way  of  reaction, 
is  the  Emotional  Extreme.  As  it  was  the 
great  vice  of  the  Schoolmen  to  attempt  the 
teaching  of  theology  in  a  logical  system,  so 
this  extreme  brings  us  back  to  the  Mystics, 
who  thought  that  true  religion  could  not 
be  acquired  by  way  of  cold  argument,  but 
was  an  affair  of  the  heart,  or  rather  of 
that  beatific  vision  which  far  transcends 
the  ordinary  ways  of  sober  thinking. 

There  is  not  wanting  a  great  attraction 
in  this  school.  The  sense  of  holiness,  like 
the  sense  of  beauty,  is  something  too  pure 
and  subtle  for  analysis  ;  the  revelations  of 
a  vision  are  infinitely  grander  and  clearer 


90  ON  PREACHING.      [sect.  xxx. 

than  the  deductions  of  the  understanding. 
There  is,  too,  the  feeling,  the  right  feeling, 
that  a  science  which  deals  with  the  unseen 
and  the  infinite  cannot  be  an  exact  science, 
and  cannot  set  down  its  conclusions  as 
mathematically  demonstrable.  But  the 
boundary  between  the  persuasion  of  the 
intellect  and  the  conviction  of  the  heart  is 
not  easily  defined  ;  it  is  very  hard  to  say 
where  argument  is  to  end  and  sentiment 
to  assert  itself  Hence  a  great  many 
men,  from  vagueness  of  mind,  from  idle- 
ness, from  sentimentality,  adopt  a  style  of 
preaching  which  consists  in  nothing  but 
appeals  to  the  heart,  and  demands  upon  a 
sympathy  which  they  must  soon  exhaust. 

§  30.  Some  do  it  from  vagueness  of 
mind,  not  knowing  what  a  proof  means, 
and  being,  therefore,  unable  to  con- 
struct or  explain  one  where  it  is  really 
possible.  Let  me  add  that  wherever 
rational  persuasion  is  attainable,  this  is  the 
noblest  and   purest  kind  of  eloquence — 


SECT.  XXX.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  91 

indeed,  that  which  alone  deserves  the 
name.  The  preacher  who  attempts  de- 
liberately to  lead  his  hearers  by  appeals 
to  their  emotions,  when  he  knows  that  it 
is  possible  to  do  it  by  their  reason,  is 
so  far  degrading  his  sacred  ofifice,  and 
helping  to  degrade  his  hearers.  But 
the  case  before  us  is  not  so  bad  ;  it  is 
that  of  a  man  who  knows  no  better  than 
to  make  such  appeals,  and  who  accordingly 
ends  by  alienating  the  better  class  of  his 
congregation. 

Some  do  it  from  idleness,  from  the 
want  of  that  honest  vigour  which  seeks  to 
grapple  with  the  difficulties  of  the  subject — 
that  diligence  which  spends  the  midnight 
hours  over  grammars  and  commentaries, 
or  works  out  independently  solutions  for 
the  difficulties  which  occur  to  every  ear- 
nest student  in  theology.  It  is,  of  course, 
far  cheaper  to  idle  during  the  week,  and 
repeat  worn-out  sentiments  from  the  pulpit 
on  Sunday  ;  but  they  sound  hollow  and 


92  ON  PREACHING.      [sect.  xjcx. 

formal ;  they  have  not  the  ring  of  pure 
metal  ;  and  so  the  preacher  becomes 
ultimately  the  worst  kind  of  ritualist 
or  formalist — the  formalist  in  worn-out 
sentiment. 

This  is  probably  the  largest  division  of 
over-sentimental  preachers,  and  there  is 
none  more  mischievous.  It  is  these  who 
have  brought  into  fashion  that  gushing 
tone  of  voice  and  that  affected  solemnity 
of  manner  which  are  frequently  assumed  to 
be  the  index  of  piety,  while  they  are  really 
the  index  of  shallowness  and  insincerity. 
Nothing  reduces  the  effect  of  preaching  in 
\i  our  day  more  than  the  fact  that  so  many 

preachers  adopt  with  their  vestments  a  new 
voice  and  a  new  manner.  They  drawl 
out  certain  sacred  names  with  mawkish 
emphasis;  they  constantly  assume  a  sickly 
smile  while  they  are  expressing  an  arti- 
ficial love  of  God,  or  of  their  erring  brethren. 
The  whole  sermon  becomes  empty  and 
official,  and  is  understood  to  be  the  mere 


SECT.  XXX.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  93 

performance  of  a  stated  duty.  In  fact, 
when  we  hear  a  preacher  begin  in  a  natural 
style,  and  with  his  proper  voice, — when  he 
speaks  directly  as  a  plain  man  to  plain 
men, — when  he  seeks  to  argue  with  us  as 
if  he  were  arguing  some  matter  of  every- 
day life, — then  it  is  that  we  at  once  gather 
up  our  attention,  and  set  ourselves  to  hear 
him  carefully.  We  feel  that  he  means 
business;  we  conclude  him  to  be  in  earnest; 
and  so  whatever  he  has  to  say  produces 
its  due  effect.  I  do  not  know  what 
the  schools  of  sacred  rhetoric  teach,  but  of 
this  we  may  be  certainly  convinced,  that 
the  first  thing  they  ought  to  teach  is  an 
abhorrence  for  that  vicious  sentimentality 
of  manner  which  is  so  uniformly  adopted 
by  certain  schools  of  religious  thought. 

There  are,  thirdly,  some  men  who  adopt 
sentimental  appeals  from  a  peculiarity  of 
constitution,  to  whom  this  side  of  things  is 
very  attractive,  and  who,  therefore,  natur- 
ally put  it  forward.      In  them  it  is  not  in- 


94  ON  PREACHING,      [sect.  xxx. 

deed  a  vice,  but  still  a  defect.  They  should 
be  reminded  that  religion  loses  all  its  nerve 
and  vigour  if  it  be  reduced  to  a  mere  matter 
of  emotion,  and  to  effusions  about  Divine 
love — effusions  which  often  mislead  them 
into  strange  metaphors  and  strange  misin- 
terpreting of  very  unsentimental  facts. 

Adam  Smith  argued  with  great  force 
that  all  social  propriety,  nay,  even  all 
morals,  depended  upon  not  overstraining 
the  sympathy  of  our  fellow  men.  They 
were  the  touchstone  by  which  we  could  test 
and  repress  the  displays  of  vanity,  or  self- 
consciousness,  or  whatever  other  excesses 
our  own  self-love  might  urge  us  to  commit. 
In  no  case  is  this  more  vital  than  in  that  of 
public  speaking  ;  in  no  relation  of  life  does 
a  man's  success  depend  more  frequently  on 
the  sympathy  of  his  fellows.  But  in  this 
peculiar  branch  of  speaking,  the  trammels 
of  another  propriety  have  prevented  any 
outspoken  expressions  of  that  sympathy  ; 
coldness  and,  silence  are  not,  as  elsewhere, 


SECT.  XXX.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  95 

plain  evidences  of  its  absence,  and  so  the 
preacher  may  flatter  himself  that  he  is  being 
heard  with  interest  when  he  is  merely  toler- 
ated from  motives  of  public  decency.  He 
must  therefore  be  more  on  his  guard  than 
any  other  speaker  ;  and  instead  of  presum- 
ing on  the  respect  with  which  he  is  treated, 
and  abusing  it,  he  should  ever  watch  with 
care  how  far  he  can  count  on  the  real 
sympathy  of  his  hearers,  and  ask  why  it  is 
that  it  dies  out  so  frequently.  Few  men 
have  the  presence  of  mind,  the  keenness 
of  sight,  the  modesty,  to  watch  for  these 
symptoms,  which  are  evanescent  or  sub- 
dued in  our  congregations.  One  cannot 
but  wish  that  propriety  did  not  extend 
so  far,  and  most  honest  preachers  would 
purchase,  at  the  cost  of  some  rude  experi- 
ences, an  increase  of  honest  and  outspoken 
criticism  in  congregations  which  are  now 
oppressed  and  wearied  with  a  formality 
which  they  hate,  but  which  they  have  no 
power  to  abolish. 


c,6  ON  PRE  ACHING.   [s^CT.  :iixxu. 

§  31.  If  a  digression  were  lawful,  we 
might  illustrate  the  same  defect  of  over- 
sentimentality  from  the  popular  hymns  of 
the  day,  which  often  revel  in  rhapsodies 
worthy  of  censure  for  their  vulgarity,  were 
they  not  made  infinitely  repulsive  and  mis- 
chievous owing  to  the  holiness  and  mys- 
tery of  the  topics  which  they  handle.  There 
is  also  much  of  the  same  exaggeration  in 
the  religion  taught  to  children,  who  are 
supposed  to  understand  no  argument,  and 
are  therefore  only  to  be  approached 
through  their  feelings.  How  often  does 
this  unsound  assumption  beget  future 
scepticism  or  indifference !  But  these 
considerations,  however  interesting,  must 
not  lead  us  from  our  path. 

§  32.  Let  us  turn  to  a  new  kind  of  de- 
fect, and  one  which  at  first  sight  will  not  be 
obvious — perhaps  not  even  generally  ad- 
mitted to  be  a  defect :  I  mean  Extreme  Or- 
thodoxy in  preaching.  What,  the  reader  will 
ask,  is  it  possible  for  the  preacher  to  be  too 


SECT.  XXXII.]    DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  97 

orthodox  according  to  his  hghts  ?  Surely 
he  alone  is  entitled  to  teach  any  religion 
who  believes  thoroughly,  and  can  expound 
and  defend,  every  article  of  the  creed 
which  he  professes.  All  this,  generally 
understood,  is  perfectly  true,  and  it  is  cer- 
tain that  dogmatism  is  a  very  important 
element  in  vigorous  and  clear  preaching. 
Nevertheless,  there  is  a  sense,  and  a  very 
important  one,  in  which  a  preacher  can  be 
too  ortJiodox. 

It  is  rightly  believed  by  most  Christian 
communities  that  by  the  advent  of  Christ 
religion  was  finally  fixed  upon  certain 
definite  lines,  contained  in  the  Bible,  and 
formulated  by  the  Churches.  This  finality 
of  our  faith,  the  impossibility  of  any  fur- 
ther change  or  development  during  the 
present  dispensation, — these  are  articles  of 
every  faith  which  is  Semitic  in  character, 
and  they  mark  the  whole  history  of  re- 
ligion throughout  modern  Europe.     Thus, 

in  a  remarkable    passage   in    the   Mosaic 
H 


98  ON  PREACHING,  [sect,  xxxiii. 

law,  the  people  are  warned  that  if  a 
teacher  arise  who  shall  teach  contrary  to 
that  law,  though  he  prove  his  mission  by  signs 
and  wonders,  he  is  to  be  rejected  and  put  to 
death  (Deut.  xiii.  I  -  5  ).  This  is  the  attitude  of 
all  our  Christian  communities, — indeed,  of 
the  Jews  and  Mohammedans  also.  The  one 
thing  about  which  people  feel  perfectly  sure 
is,  that  their  own  religion  is  absolutely  true, 
and  can  tolerate  no  modification.  This  is 
of  course  the  very  essence  of  faith  ;  if  we 
are  not  assured  that  we  possess  the  whole 
truth,  we  are  bound  to  seek  it  out  at  once, 
and  adopt  some  other  persuasion  which 
will  give  it  to  us,  if  such  can  be  found. 

§  3  3.  And  yet  there  have  been  great  re- 
forms in  religion ;  even  since  the  revelation 
of  the  Gospel,  there  have  been  great  changes 
in  faith.  But  they  were  all  justified  as  re- 
turns to  the  original  purity  of  the  Bible, 
which  had  been  corrupted  by  men.  In 
no  case  have  reformers  ventured  to  preach 
their   gospel   as   new;   they   have   always 


SECT,  xxxiii.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  99 

insisted  upon  its  being  a  return  to  the  old 
and  therefore  to  the  pure.  Even  those 
wild  sects  in  America,  which  lay  claim  to 
a  new  revelatiori,  and  teach  strange  morals 
and  stranger  social  laws,  base  themselves 
on  ancient  authority,  and  endeavour  to 
find  a  warrant  in  the  now  abandoned 
standpoints  of  the  Old  Testament. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  inquire  here  how 
far  this  claim  of  all  religious  reformers 
to  have  merely  returned  to  the  primitive 
faith  of  their  ancestors  in  its  original 
purity  can  be  historically  maintained.  It 
is  likely  enough  that  if  a  modern  Pro- 
testant and  a  Christian  of  the  second 
century  met  in  the  flesh,  they  would  be 
astonished  at  the  mutual  divergence  in 
their  spiritual  views,  still  more  in  their 
religious  forms.  It  may,  indeed,  be  fairly 
argued  that  an  absolutely  unmodified  re- 
turn to  what  existed  centuries  ago  is 
perfectly  impossible,  and  that  any  restora- 
tion  must   contain    much  that  is  new,  in- 


loo  ON  PREACHING.   [SECT,  xxxiv. 

fused  into  it  by  the  spirit  of  the  age.  But 
though  we  may  distinguish  in  art  the 
archaic  from  the  archaistic,  the  really  an- 
cient from  the  elaborated  antique ;  it  is 
not  expedient  to  do  so  in  religion.  Here, 
at  least,  it  will  be  enough  to  show  that 
even  within  the  limits  of  strict  orthodoxy, 
within  that  narrow  liberty  of  opinion 
which  the  members  of  each  sect  accord 
to  one  another,  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
a  development  of  doctrine,  or,  if  that  ex- 
pression implies  too  much,  let  us  call  it 
a  drifting  of  public  sentiment  in  certain 
directions,  or  away  from  certain  aspects  of 
religion.      Here  are  some  examples. 

§  34.  There  was  no  subject  which  ob- 
tained more  painful  prominence  in  the 
earlier  preaching  of  the  Church  than  the 
punishment  ot  the  wicked.  Harrowing 
pictures  were  drawn  of  the  eternal  miseries 
ot  the  damned,  and  art  was  summoned  to 
aid  by  horrible  illustrations  the  language 
of  the  pulpit.      The  main   reason  alleged 


SECT.  XXXIV.]  DEFECTIVE  TYP.ES.  loi 

for  insisting  upon  this  doctrine  was  no 
doubt  the  duty  of  warning  sinners  from 
the  wrath  to  come.  It  was  considered 
that  the  terrors  of  hellfire  would  be  a 
potent  incentive  to  turn  men  from  vice  and 
heresy,  and  lead  them  to  embrace  ortho- 
doxy and  pursue  virtue.  This  reason  is 
still  alleged  by  those  who  think  it  profit- 
able to  bring  forward  the  subject,  and  it 
is,  whether  sound  or  not,  the  only  defensible 
one.  For  the  idea  which  is  said  to  be 
prominent  in  Tertullian,  that  the  eternal 
punishment  of  the  lost,  being  contem- 
plated by  the  saints  in  Heaven,  will  add  to 
their  happiness,  is  only  a  pandering  to  the 
passion  of  revenge.  This  may  be  thought 
excusable  in  days  of  great  persecution,  but 
now -a -days  is  simply  disgusting.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  a  preacher  addressing  a 
cultivated  congregation,  and  under  normal 
circumstances,  did  use  the  idea  of  Tertullian 
very  lately  in  the  diocese  of  Dublin.  I 
happened  to  meet  many  of  his  congrega- 


I02  ON  PREACHING,   [sect,  xxxiv. 

tion  the  same  day,  and  they  were  all  open- 
mouthed  against  him  for  so  gross  a  viola- 
tion, not  only  of  good  taste,  but  of  Chris- 
tian charity.  In  days  of  trouble  and 
persecution,  moreover  of  rudeness  and  vio- 
lence in  social  life,  we  can  conceive  the 
harried  Christians  consoling  themselves 
with  the  reflection  that  their  tormentors 
had  their  good  things  in  this  life  only,  and 
that  God's  vengeance  would  requite  them 
a  thousandfold  hereafter. 

But  let  us  set  aside  this  extreme  and  truly 
un-Christian  form  of  using  the  doctrine  of 
eternal  punishment.  For  we  may  go  fur- 
ther, and  say  that  in  our  own  day  even  the 
orthodox  have  become  undecided  about  it ; 
many  eminent  and  pious  divines  have  ex- 
pressed themselves  against  it;  and  we  may 
take  it  for  certain  that  in  any  educated  con- 
gregation the  majority  regard  it  as  a  sort  of 
obsolete  appendix  to  their  creed,  which  they 
lay  aside  and  forget,  but  which  they  will 
not  positively  deny  unless  they  are  pressed. 


SECT.  XXXIV.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  103 

Here,  then,  we  come  in  view  of  what  I 
mean  by  a  preacher  being  guilty  of  an 
extreme  in  orthodoxy.  Though  pubhc 
opinion  in  our  churches  has  drifted  away 
from  this  doctrine,  some  men  will  take  it 
up,  insist  upon  it  as  taught  in  their  Bible 
and  recognised  by  their  creed ;  and  so  annoy 
and  alienate  their  hearers  by  the  perpetual 
enforcing  of  a  dogma  which  many  high 
and  orthodox  authorities  have  declared  to 
be  no  essential  of  the  Christian  creed.^  He 
will  urge,  no  doubt,  that  he  is  convinced  of 
the  doctrine,  and  regards  it  as  of  great 
importance;  that  the  deterrents  from  vice 
in  this  life  are  not  strong  enough;  and 
that  he  were  neglecting  his  duty  if  he  did 
not  constantly  bring  this  awful  consequence 
before  his  pegple.  He  will  cite  texts  from 
the  Bible  in  support  of  his  views,  and 
charge  his  critic  with  lukewarmness   and 

^  The  reader  will  remember,  in  case  this  passage  is 
misrepresented  hereafter,  that  I  am  speaking  of  eternal 
punishment,  not  of  future  punishment  generally. 


I04  ON  PREACHING,   [sect.  xxxv. 

sentimentality  in  not  adopting  and  pro- 
claiming the  whole  truth.  But  in  spite  of 
all  this,  his  sermons  will  have  no  effect,  or 
a  bad  effect,  because  they  are  anachronistic, 
out  of  time  and  place,  and  preached  to 
congregations  who  are  estranged  from  that 
particular  dogma  in  their  Christianity. 

§  35.  Akin  to  this  error  in  preaching  is 
the  propounding  of  that  Calvinistic  side  of 
religion  which  insists  upon  the  small  num- 
ber of  the  elect,  and  the  great  number  of 
those  who  will  fall  short  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  It  may  be  logically  accurate  that 
the  omniscient  Deity  foresees  the  whole 
future  of  each  man,  and  that  it  is  by  His 
divine  decree  that  the  majority  of  mankind 
are  allowed  to  remain  in  ignorance  of  the 
higher  truth  or  in  neglect  of  it.  It  may 
be  theologically  sound  that  few  only  will 
be  saved,  and  that  broad  is  the  way  that 
leadeth  to  destruction  ;  but  nevertheless,  to 
remind  the  congregation  constantly  that 
by  a  divine  and  immutable  law  most  of 


SECT.  XXXVI.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  105 

them  must  be  lost,  and  that  the  condi- 
tions of  salvation  require  not  great  and 
earnest  personal  exertions,  but  special  elec- 
tion by  the  Deity,  is  the  most  mischievous 
thing  which  a  preacher  can  do.  The  day 
is  gone  by  even  for  so  great  an  orator  as 
Massillon  to  terrify  his  congregation  by  a 
sermon  on  the  small  number  of  the  elect. 
The  doctrine  of  election  may  be  felt  a 
great  privilege  by  many  true  Christians  ; 
it  may  be  the  only  view  reconcilable  with 
certain  aspects  of  Scripture  ;  and  yet  to 
preach  it  with  special  insistence  upon  its 
corollary, — the  multitude  of  the  damned, 
— is  an  excess  of  orthodoxy  which  will  dis- 
credit a  modern  preacher.  We  may  indeed 
go  further,  and  say  that  even  attacks  on  this 
extreme  Calvinism  are  now  out  of  date, 
and  that  most  people  regard  it  as  a  waste 
of  energy  to  combat  a  doctrine  so  little 
in  sympathy  with  the  temper  of  modern 
society  and  the  belief  of  most  Christians. 
§  36.  All  these  special  severities  of  doc- 


io6  ON  PREACHING,  [sect,  xxxvi. 

trine  seem  to  be  derived  from  the  same 
fountain-head,  and  the  drifting  of  modern 
society  away  from  them  to  be  accounted  for 
in  like  manner.  This  is  so  important  and 
fundamental  a  matter  in  explaining  the 
varieties  of  orthodoxy  that  we  must  dis- 
cuss it  with  some  detail. 

The  doctrines  of  the  eternity  and  in- 
finite severity  of  punishment  reserved  for 
those  who  fail  by  a  hair's- breadth  to  attain 
the  felicities  of  Heaven  ;  the  doctrine  of 
the  selection  from  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  world  by  a  perfectly  arbitrary  act 
of  a  small  number  for  these  felicities, 
and  the  exclusion  of  the  rest — all  such 
doctrines  are  necessarily  based  on  the 
conception  of  the  Deity  as  an  absolutely 
despotic  Ruler,  whose  powers  and  rights 
over  his  subjects  have  no  limits.  This  is  the 
purely  Oriental  conception  of  monarchy. 
The  Oriental  despot  was  thought  to  own 
his  subjects  like  so  many  cattle;  and  to 
take  away  their  property  or  their  life,  even 


SECT.  XXXVI.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  107 

with  torture,  was  no  more  a  straining  of 
his  actual  rights  than  it  was  to  put  to 
death,  in  the  manner  best  suited  to  his 
convenience,  the  lower  animals  he  had 
domesticated,  though  it  involved  great 
and  unnecessary  suffering.  Indeed  the  de- 
spotic feeling  as  regards  the  lower  animals 
is  only  now  gradually  giving  way  in  the 
most  enlightened  parts  of  Europe;  and 
humanity,  though  recognised  in  the  law  of 
England,  is  a  notion  quite  foreign  to  the 
Irish  peasant,  to  the  Italian- and  Spanish 
peasant — indeed  to  the  Governments  of 
the  latter  countries — in  fact,  to  most  of  the 
world.  We  need  not  cite  the  East,  where 
humanity  to  men  is  not  yet  comprehended. 
So  it  is  with  the  Eastern  despot  as  regards 
His  subjects.  He  can  assign  the  severest 
punishments  for  the  most  trivial  crimes, 
the  greatest  rewards  for  small  or  acci- 
dental merits.  He  rules  with  reference  to 
himself,  and  any  thought  for  the  welfare 
of  his   people  is  accepted  as  a   proof  of 


loS  ON  FRE AC ff/NG.  [sect,  xxxvu 

generosity  and  condescension  on  his  part, 
not  as  the  performance  of  a  duty. 

Such  being  the  case,  we  have  only  to 
add  that  in  all  speculations  concerning  the 
nature  of  the  Deity  men  are  obliged  to  use 
human  analogies,  and  to  represent  as  the 
king  of  kings,  as  the  supremest  of  rulers, 
the  great  Being  who  is  Lord  over  the 
world.  It  was  perfectly  impossible  for  early 
and  Oriental  writers  to  form  any  other 
conception  of  God  than  that  of  a  Despot 
in  the  sense  just  explained.  They  acknow- 
ledged his  great  mercy  and  benevolence, 
but  as  a  condescension  on  his  part,  not  as 
a  claim  on  the  part  of  his  subjects.  Nay, 
he  was  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  sins  of 
the  fathers  upon  the  children  to  the  third 
and  fourth  generation, — in  this,  above  all, 
an  Oriental  monarch,  for  there  it  was  cus- 
tomary to  involve  all  the  innocent  family 
of  an  offender  in  his  crime,  and  root  out 
the  whole  household  of  him  who  dared  to 
displease  his  King.      He  who  ventures  to 


SECT,  xxxvii.]    DEFECTIVE  TYPES.         109 

offend  by  not  putting  on  a  wedding  gar- 
ment is  punished  for  this  disrespect  as 
being  guilty  of  a  hideous  and  unpardon- 
able crime.  The  King  exalts  whom  he 
will,  and  degrades  whom  he  will.  We  are 
but  as  the  clay  in  the  potter's  hand,  from 
which  he  makes  one  vessel  for  honour  and 
one  for  dishonour.  And  even  St.  Paul 
cannot  see  the  possibility  of  question- 
ing these  absolutely  despotic  rights  on 
the  part  of  the  King  of  kings.  What- 
ever He  chooses  to  <\o  for  His  own  glory  is 
not  only  justifiable,  but  His  natural  course 
of  action,  and  no  man  can  possibly  gain- 
say it. 

§  37.  The  very  statement  of  these  views 
- — and  citations  to  support  them  could  be 
multiplied  indefinitely  —  produce  in  the 
modern  reader  a  certain  painful  impression, 
and  why  ?  Our  notion  of  monarchy  has 
changed  ;  we  no  longer  regard  the  absolute 
despot  as  the  most  splendid  of  types  ;  we  do 
not  recognise  that  the  earthly   monarch's 


no  ON  PREACHING,    [sect,  xxxvii. 

proper  object  is  his  own  glory,  but  rather 
the  good  and  welfare  of  his  people.  Our 
highest  conception  is  that  of  a  constitutional 
king,  who  establishes  wise  and  beneficent 
laws,  and  binds  himself  to  act  in  conform- 
ity with  them,  even  though  he  have  the 
power  to  reverse  or  violate  them. 

There  are  not  wanting  expressions  of  this 
side  of  God's  character,  even  in  the  Semitic 
Scriptures.  But  according  as  modern  civil- 
isation has  more  and  more  determined  it 
to  be  the  highest  ideal  of  a  king,  so  this 
aspect  of  the  Deity  has  become  the  pre- 
vailing one  in  modern  theology  of  the 
higher  kind  ;  and  this,  the  moral  view  of 
the  government  of  the  world,  has  super- 
seded the  despotic  view  of  older  days. 
The  fact  that  diseases  engendered  by  vice 
are  hereditary  may  be  identified  with  the 
proclamation  that  the  sins  of  the  fathers 
are  visited  upon  the  children  to  the  third 
and  fourth  generation  ;  but  the  ground  and 
reason  of  both  are  widely  different.     The 


SECT.  XXXVII.]    DEFECTIVE  TYPES.         in 

former  is  the  assertion  of  a  great  natural 
law,  that  the  consequences  of  vice  are  be- 
yond our  control,  and  lead  to  disastrous 
results  affecting  those  whom  we  should  be 
the  last  to  injure.  It  teaches  us  to  com- 
pute the  loss  and  damage  inflicted  upon 
the  human  race  by  the  wickedness  of  a 
few.  The  latter  is  distinctly  asserted  to 
be  the  consequence  of  the  jealousy  of  the 
Deity,  who  wreaks  His  vengeance  upon  all 
the  household  of  him  who  commits  high 
treason  in  allowing  any  other  being  to 
usurp  the  place  of  his  one  and  only 
Sovereign. 

Thus  there'  is  a  contrast, — I  will  not  say 
a  conflict, — between  the  despotic  and  con- 
stitutional aspects  of  the  Deity  in  modem 
theology.  On  the  one  hand  we  have  the 
analogies'and  arguments  suggested  by  the 
sacred  authors,  who  lived  under  despo'.!c 
governments  ;  on  the  other  the  modern  or 
constitutional  view  of  God's  government. 
To  insist  upon  the  former  is  an  excess  of 


112  ON  PREACHING,  [sect,  xxxviii. 

orthodoxy,  and   gives   rise  to  the   promi- 

Aj^%.,  •   '  nence    of   the    doctrines    ;arrd    imply    the 

severity  and  exclusiveness  of  Christianity. 

We  must  allow  that  the  actual  omni- 
potence of  the  Deity,  and  still  more  the 
fact  that  he  is  the  Creator  of  man,  and  not 
his  Ruler  only,  afford  the  Absolutist  in 
theology  a  strong  ground  for  denying  the 
analogy  between  modern  kings  and  the 
great  King  of  kings.  It  may  be  argued 
with  perfect  consistency  that  His  rights 
and  powers  over  man  are  absolute,  and  are 
justly  represented  as  such  by  sacred 
writers.  But  this  logical  side  of  the  matter 
will  not  outweigh  the  feeling  in  the  minds 
of  modern  congregations,  that  despotism  is 
not  the  highest  form  of  government,  and 
therefore  the  modern  preacher  will  do  well 
to  study  with  care  that  constitutional  side 
of  God's  government  which  corresponds 
to  the  temper  of  our  society. 

§  38.  It  was  necessary  to  enter  with  more 
than  usual  detail  into  what  I  ventured  to 


SECT.  XXXVIII.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  113 

call  the  orthodox  extreme,  because  the 
expression  was  liable  to  be  misconstrued, 
and  the  underlying  facts  misconceived. 
And  yet  to  those  who  will  not  admit  any 
development,  or  even  any  drifting,  in  ortho- 
dox religions,  all  that  has  been  said  is  vain. 
I  will  cordially  admit  that  a  stern  dog- 
matic preacher,  who  refuses  to  vary  with 
any  wind  of  doctrine,  and  sets  forth  the 
truth  as  it  was  conceived  and  expressed 
by  the  great  divines  centuries  ago,  affects 
serious  hearers  with  a  feeling  of  great 
respect  for  his  consistency  and  singleness  of 
heart.  But  we  must  feel  that  he  is  repro- 
ducing these  ideas  from  himself,  and  not 
copying  them  slavishly  from  the  forgotten 
tomes  of  a  theological  library.  This  latter 
kind  of  preaching,  common  enough  even 
among  those  who  ought  to  know  better,  is 
simply  contemptible  ;  and  the  anachron- 
isms exhibited  are  not  those  psychological 
anachronisms  which  we  have  just  spoken 
of   as   interesting,   but   those  unconscious 


114  ON  PREACHING.   [SECT,  xxxix. 

anachronisms   which    only  excite    amuse- 
ment or  pity. 

§  39.  But  the  real  dignity  of  dogmatic 
preaching  is  more  strongly  exhibited  by  its 
contrast  with  what  may  be  called  the  broad 
or  Heterodox  Extreme,  a  form  oi  preaching 
very  common,  and  even  fashionable,  at 
present,  and  one  which  perhaps  more 
than  any  other  brings  preaching  into  dis- 
repute. It  is  not  here  intended  to  discuss 
the  cases  in  which  men  set  forth  from 
their  pulpits  doctrines  clearly  at  variance 
with  the  creed  which  they  have  professed, 
and  present  the  painful  spectacle  of  incon- 
sistency and  self-contradiction  in  a  teacher, 
who  ought  to  be  of  all  things  clear 
and  consistent.  Even  to  be  suspected  of 
holding  views  inconsistent  with  his  pro- 
fession, spreads  doubt  and  distrust  among 
his  hearers  ;  and  hence  there  is  no 
weapon  to  which  malicious  people  of 
ostentatious  orthodoxy  more  frequently 
resort    than    this    disseminating    of    sus- 


SECT.  XXXIX.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  115 

picions,  when  they  dislike   rivals,  or  fear 
theological  antagonists. 

But  I  am  not  here  concerned  with  cases 
of  distinct  heresy,  or  with  those  men  who 
think  that  their  position  permits  them  this 
license.  What  is  here  meant  by  the  hetero- 
dox extreme,  as  opposed  to  the  excessive 
orthodoxy  just  discussed,  is  rather  a  general 
laxity  as  regards  the  importance  of  dogma, 
and  a  sort  of  easy-going  implication  that 
we  must  leave  men  great  liberty  as  to 
their  beliefs,  provided  they  are  strict  in 
their  duties  and  their  life.  This  error,  like 
all  those  which  affect  preaching,  consists 
in  the  distortion  of  a  valuable  truth. 
Liberty  of  opinion,  and  the  right  ot 
private  judgment  as  to  doctrine,  is  the 
stronghold  of  modern  enlightenment ;  it 
has  been  the  common  error  of  all  Churches, 
— 'and  not  least  of  the  ultra- Protestant 
Churches, — to  shackle  it  unduly.  Thus 
Descartes,  a  great  scientific  discoverer, 
found    in     the    reformed     theologians    ot 


ii6  ON  PREACHING,   [sect,  xxxix. 

Holland  far  bitterer  enemies  than  in  the 
Roman  Church. 

But  if,  through  recoil  from  this  error, 
modern  preachers  come  to  believe  that 
dogma  is  of  little  importance,  provided  a 
higher  morality  be  enforced,  they  make, 
in  my  opinion,  a  very  grave  mistake.  For 
I  take  it  to  be  historically  certain  that  the 
world  has  been  reformed,  not  by  preach- 
ing morals,  but  by  preaching  dogma.  The 
most  perfect  example  only  reaches  those 
immediately  around  it ;  a  recital  of  its 
perfections  has  no  power  to  stir  those  afar 
off  in  age  or  country.  Thus  the  early 
teachers  of  Christianity  seldom  insisted  on 
the  details  of  Christ's  life.  Indeed,  if  all 
the  personal  allusions  in  the  Epistles  were 
gathered  together,  we  should  fail  utterly 
to  obtain  from  them  a  picture  of  the  man. 
What  converted  the  world  was  not  the 
example  of  Christ's  life  ;  it  was  the  dogma 
of  His  death.  It  was  the  assertion  of  His 
divinity  and  His  atonement  which  formed 


SECT.  XL.]      DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  117 

the  real  substance  of  early  Christian  preach- 
ing, and  it  was  this  which  reformed  the 
world, 

§  40.  It  would  be  easy,  but  would  re- 
quire large  space,  to  show  the  same  feature 
in  the  other  religions  founded  by  a  great 
personality.  It  was  always  the  founder's 
divine  mission,  and  the  dogma  revealed  to 
him,  which  remained  the  lifeblood  of  the 
new  religion.  Hence  the  very  usual  idea 
among  fashionable  preachers,  that  they 
need  not  insist  upon  dogma,  that  they  may 
admit  great  differences  on  speculative 
points,  that  they  need  only  teach  purer 
morals  and  higher  practical  aims  in  our 
life, — all  this  is  based  on  a  very  natural 
error,  but  an  error  which  history  has  long 
since  exposed.  This  is  the  weakness  of 
such  books  as  Ecce  Homo,  in  themselves 
beautiful  and  true,  but  not  able  to  produce 
any  permanent  impression  on  society. 

It  is  not  here  asserted  that  moral  preach- 
ing is  of  no  use.     Far  from  it.     But  this  is 


ii8  ON  PREACHING.         [sect.  XL. 

asserted,  that  moral  preaching  by  itself 
will  have  but  little  effect  ;  it  must  be  used 
as  an  accessory  to  dogmatic  preaching,  for 
it  is  dogma  which  rules  the  great  changes 
in  the  religious  thought  of  the  world. 
Hence  appears  the  error  of  what  I  have 
called  the  heterodox  extreme,  which  plays 
with  foreign  doctrines  as  interesting  varia- 
tions of  opinion,  which  will  not  controvert 
any  article  in  a  speculative  creed,  and 
which  professes  to  care  for  none  of  these 
things,  provided  a  pure  life  be  preached. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  all  great 
social  and  political  revolutions  have  been 
preceded  and  introduced  by  intellectual 
movements.  It  was  Voltaire  and  Rousseau 
and  the  Encyclopaedists  who  awakened  the 
French  mind  to  the  ideas  of  the  Revolution. 
So  it  was  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  and  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul  on  which  the  main  body 
of  Christian  dogma  is  founded,  and  these 
are  the  speculative  parts  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment.    To  evade  dogma,  then,  or  to  hold  it 


SECT.  XLi.]    DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  119 

of  little  account,  is  a  defect  in  the  preacher, 
who  is  never,  or  hardly  ever,  successful,  ex- 
cept he  be  dogmatic.  The  moral  essayist 
in  the  pulpit  is  common  enough  now-a- 
days ;  he  is  often  a  literary  artist,  and 
attracts  many  people  by  his  grace  of  diction 
and  richness  of  ideas.  He  never  shocks  or 
frightens  them,  for  his  real  gospel  is  that  of 
modern  culture.  So  it  was  with  Menander 
and  the  genteel  comedy  of  the  Greeks,  when 
the  stage  had  given  up  all  idea  of  reform- 
ing mankind,  and  confined  itself  to  pictures 
of  human  life.  There  are  great  lessons  to 
be  gained  by  such  portraiture,  and  by  the 
graceful  but  forcible  exposure  of  the  weak- 
ness and  folly  of  men.  But  this  is  not 
preaching,  and  will  not  preserve  for  the 
preacher  the  great  vantage  ground  he  once 
possessed  as  the  leader  of  earnest  men. 

§  41.  The  two  excesses  now  discussed 
may  perhaps  be  classed,  with  others  which 
have  not  been  mentioned,  under  another 
pair  of  defects,  which  affect  the  general 


I20  ON  PREACHING.       [sect.  XLI. 

character  of  a  preacher,  irrespective  of  the 
particular  doctrines  he  propounds.  The 
first  and  commonest  of  these  is  the  Ex- 
treme of  Sameness  which  characterises  our 
sermons,  and  which  tends  to  make  people 
think  that  they  will  only  hear  what  they 
knew  long  before,  and  'what  is  therefore 
hardly  worth  hearing  over  again. 

And  yet  this  feeling  on  the  part  of 
the  hearer  is  met  on  the  part  of  the 
preacher  by  the  distinct  principle,  that  the 
great  cardinal  doctrines  of  his  faith  not 
only  require  constant  restatement,  but  that 
this  restatement  is  a  necessary  part  of  his 
duty.  There  is  even  a  school  of  pious 
men  who  think  that  all  Christianity  centres 
round  one  cardinal  doctrine — Justification 
by  Faith  in  Christ's  Atonement ;  and  I 
have  often  heard  them  say  that  they 
should  feel  unable  to  give  an  account  of 
their  stewardship  if  a  stranger  had  chanced 
to  attend  for  once  their  ministry,  and,  being 
ignorant  of  the  truth,   had    not   heard    it 


SECT.  XLI.]    DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  121 

from  their  lips.  These  excellent  and  pious 
men  put  such  stress  on  this  consideration, 
and  were  so  convinced  that  their  preaching 
might  be,  and  often  was,  the  occasion  for 
sudden  conversion  from  darkness  to  light, 
that  nothing  would  induce  them  to  vary, 
beyond  the  text  and  some  illustrations, 
the  character  of  their  preaching. 

It  always  appeared  to  me  that  they 
curiously  ignored  the  lessons  taught  by 
their  ritual,  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  at 
every  service,  and  still  more  the  fact  that 
practically  every  hearer,  though  not  un- 
derstanding the  Gospel  after  their  fashion, 
is  baptized  and  brought  up  in  the  faith. 
Still,  exceptions,  though  rare,  were  pos- 
sible, and  so  far  their  position  was  logically 
defensible.  More  serious  was  the  fact  that 
the  great  majority  heard  the  same  thing  so 
often, — that,  for  the  sake  of  the  accidental 
stranger  or  careless  hearer  who  might  be 
struck  with  the  new  light,  the  rest  were  left 
in  intellectual  as  well  as  spiritual  poverty. 


122  ON  PREACHING.      [sect.  xlii. 

They  were  taught  no  higher  lessons  ;  they 
were  fed  with  milk  and  not  with  meat ; 
and  those  among  them  who  felt  the  desire 
o{  going  on  towards  perfection,  were  often 
starved  by  such  preaching. 

Although,  therefore,  the  sameness  in  this 
knid  of  preaching  was  the  result  of  prin- 
ciple, and  arose  from  notions  of  duty,  it 
tended  in  general  to  bring  preaching  into 
disrepute.  And  indeed  the  cases  I  have 
cited  were  only  the  highest  and  best  cases. 
How  many  followers  of  these  men  have 
kept  repeating  the  same  thing  merely  from 
laziness,  from  ignorance,  from  poverty  of 
thought,  consoling  themselves  all  the  while 
that  they  were  doing  their  duty  thoroughly! 
How  many  of  them  put  off  thieir  prepara- 
tion till  the  night  before,  and  then  ran 
together  a  string  of  pious  platitudes  to 
satisfy  the  requirements  of  their  office  ! 

§  42.  This  error  of  sameness  is  by  no 
means  confined  to  the  particular  school 
here  cited  to  illustrate  it    In  all  faiths  and 


SECT.  XLII.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  123 

creeds  it  is  to  be  found  ;  we  are  even  told 
that  the  Positivists  always  preach  on  the 
same  text.  There  are  also  many  men  with 
a  favourite  doctrine  who  think  that  no  one 
knows  its  importance  but  themselves,  and 
so  keep  reiterating  it  to  their  weary  hearers, 
who  deliberately  compose  themselves  to 
inattention  as  soon  as  they  hear  the  sub- 
ject introduced. 

A  considerable  amount  of  sameness  is 
unavoidable  in  a  preacher  on  a  definite 
form  of  faith,  shackled  by  all  manner  of 
social  trammels,  and  obliged  to  preach  far 
oftener  than  is  consistent  with  long  and  i 
thoughtful  preparation.  But  if  a  certain 
variety  be  not  attained, — if  people  know 
beforehand  exactly  what  they  will  hear, — 
then  the  sermon,  however  true  and  good, 
becomes  like  some  well-known  melody — 
well-known  because  of  its  beauty  and 
associations,  but  nevertheless  at  last  pall- 
ing on  the  sense,  and  heard  with  impatience 
and  disappointment.     If  it   be  true   that 


124  ON  PREACHING,     [sect,  xliii. 

there  are  many  people  who  never  tire  of 
such  a  melody,  so  there  are  also  many 
who  never  tire  of  hearing  the  same  argu- 
ments. But  these  are  not  the  people 
benefited  by  preaching,  nor  is  it  they, 
happily,  who  lead  public  opinion. 

While,  therefore,  I  feel  very  strongly 
that  the  sameness  of  modern  preaching  is 
often  due  to  the  most  serious  convictions, 
and  is  defended  by  the  most  pious  and 
earnest  men,  it  cannot  but  be  regarded  as 
an  active  cause  in  the  decay  of  pulpit  in- 
fluence. The  modern  public  are  used  to 
much  more  intellectual  variety  than  their 
forefathers.  They  find  intellectual  recrea- 
tion in  various  literature,  in  open  debate, 
in  the  many  and  often  thrilling  subjects 
expounded  from  public  platforms.  It  is, 
no  doubt,  an  unfair  expectation  that  the 
pulpit  shall  keep  pace  with  this  change, 
but  the  total  neglect  of  it  is  certainly  not 
a  practical  way  of  dealing  with  the  difficulty. 

§  43.  But  there  is  one  way  of  dealing  with 


SECT.  XLlli.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  125 

it  which  cannot  but  be  regarded  as  an  error 
in  the  opposite  direction.  It  is  the  desire 
in  some  men  to  make  variety  their  first 
object, — to  go  out  of  the  way  and  seek 
anywhere  and  everywhere  the  materials 
for  a  new  and  startling  discourse.  To 
this  feeling,  the  Excessive  love  of  Variety, 
may  be  ascribed  the  vulgar  habit  of  intro- 
ducing anecdotes  in  the  pulpit, — anecdotes 
which  are  not  only  foolish  and  beside  the 
point,  but  often  practically  untrue,  inas- 
much as  the  preacher  always  explains  the 
facts,  and  the  explanation  may  be  palpably 
invented.  Anecdotage  in  the  pulpit  grati- 
fies only  the  most  ignorant  and  vulgar  of 
hearers,  and  from  vulgar  I  mean  to  ex- 
clude all  those,  of  however  low  degree, 
who  come  to  hear  seriously  for  the  sake 
of  spiritual  benefit.  The  use  of  such 
illustrations  is  therefore  very  dangerous, 
and  not  to  be  resorted  to  without  the 
greatest  caution,  especially  in  the  assign- 
ment of  motives  or  causes  for  the  facts. 


126  ON  PREACHING,     [sect.  XLiii. 

Of  a  similar  character  are  those  excur- 
sions into  politics,  into  popular  science, 
into  secular  poetry,  which  sometimes 
occupy  whole  discourses,  and  which  are 
listened  to  with  attention  and  amusement, 
but  seldom  with  profit.  If  these  things 
be  used  in  illustration  of  great  truths, 
they  are  evidences  of  large  culture  in  the 
preacher,  and  also  have  their  real  value. 
But  to  make  variety  the  main  object  of 
preaching  is  to  forget  that  eternal  truths 
require  more  than  a  passing  notice.  The 
broad  lines  upon  which  human  conduct 
should  be  built  must  be  often  and  often 
explained  and  enforced.  In  the  words  of 
a  great  heathen  moralist — Conviction  does 
not  easily  arise  in  a  man  unless  he  shall 
every  day  hear  the  same  things,  speak  the 
same  things,  and  at  the  same  time  apply 
them  to  life}  It  was  said  of  a  well-known 
Roman  Catholic  prelate,  who  in  late  years 
exercised  enormous  influence  over  Ireland, 

^  Encheir.  of  Epictetus,  ed.  Rolleston,  p.  57. 


SECT.  XLiii.]  DEFECTIVE  TYPES.  127 

that  if  you  asked  him  any  question  a 
second  time,  even  at  an  interval  of  years, 
he  would  give  the  same  answer  in  the 
same  words.  And  that  was  the  secret  of 
his  power.  Strong  and  clear  persistence 
in  the  same  great  truths  is  not  an  element 
of  weakness,  but  of  power  in  a  speaker. 
But  he  must  take  care  to  confine  his 
insistence  to  points  of  real  importance  ;  in 
lesser  matters  it  is,  as  we  have  shown, 
tedious  and  ineffective. 

It  may  be  considered  the  test  ot  serious 
ness  in  an  audience,  and  an  index  whether 
they  come  for  improvement  or  for  amuse- 
ment, to  inquire  whether  they  insist  on  and 
appreciate  variety  beyond  everything  in 
their  preacher.  If  they  do,  we  may  be 
sure  that  it  is  not  their  spiritual  welfare 
which  guides  them,  but  the  mere  desire 
of  spending  an  hour  pleasantly,  or  less 
unpleasantly  than  usual,  in  their  church 
on  Sundays.  And  so  those  preachers 
in    our   large   cities   who   affect   this  sort 


128  ON  PREACHING.      [sect.  xliv. 

of  variety  are  sure  to  command  a  con- 
siderable attention  from  the  idle  classes 
—  I  mean  spiritual  idlers  —  who  now 
abound  everywhere.  It  is  a  mistake 
to  consider  the  preaching  which  attracts 
a  crowd  of  this  kind  successful  preach- 
ing. It  does  not  even  raise  the  preacher 
in  the  proper  and  sound  estimation  of 
those  people  whose  opinion  is  but  worth 
having ;  it  is  very  likely  to  mislead  him 
into  the  belief  that  he  is  doing  good, 
when  he  is  doing  at  best  nothing  at  all. 
For  in  most  cases  he  is  doing  worse  than 
nothing  ;  he  is  training  his  people  to  the 
sensation-sermon,  an  analogous  thing  to 
the  sensation-novel,  and  one  which  pro- 
duces the  same  kind  of  effect  upon  those 
who  pursue  it  continuously. 

VI.  Concerning  Remedies. 

§  44.  It  cannot  but  be  suggested  to  many 
readers  by  all  this  balancing  of  extremes 


SECT.  XLIV.]  REMEDIES.  129 

that  the  art  of  preaching  is,  like  Aristotle's 
ethical  perfection,  a  sort  of  mean  between 
faults  in  both  directions,  and  that  the 
whole  matter  might  have  been  summed 
up  in  one  sentence :  to  avoid  excess 
and  defect,  and  hold  the  middle  course. 
And  yet,  though  perhaps  logically  strong, 
such  a  position  would  practically  be  as 
weak  as  possible,  and  contain  the  most 
fatal  advice.  The  man  who  goes  through 
life  in  any  capacity,  avoiding  excess,  keep- 
ing clear  of  mistakes,  correcting  in  himseli 
and  others  all  extravagance, — this  man 
may  pass  through  life  as  a  respectable 
member  of  society,  but  he  will  never 
kindle  enthusiasm  ;  he  will  never  have  a 
following  ;  he  will  seldom  even  command 
respect  from  any  but  the  poorest  intellects. 
He  may  obtain  the  praise  of  some  for 
thorough  good  sense,  as  the  phrase  is,  and 
for  having  no  enemies,  and  for  that  com- 
mon wisdom  which  merely  consists  in  ad- 
vising caution — a  cheap  wisdom  too  often 
K 


I30  ON  PREACHING.      [SECT.  XLIV. 

current  :  he  will  never  be  a  great  or  a 
striking  man.  This,  which  is  true  gene- 
rally, is  especially  true  of  preachers.  The 
man  who  avoids  unpleasant  doctrines,  and 
avoids  all  bold  statements  of  his  own 
opinion,  who  keeps  within  the  narrowest 
bounds  set  him  by  the  theological  public, 
and  takes  no  lead  in  the  march  of  opinion, 
will  never  be  a  good,  far  less  a  great, 
teacher.  These  are  what  we  call  the  safe 
men  in  the  Church.  They  may  appear  safe 
at  the  moment ;  in  the  long  run  they  con- 
tribute to  the  ruin  of  the  Church  they 
represent.  For  they  are  essentially  cold, 
and  they  repress  in  their  surroundings  all 
the  glow  and  fervour  of  enthusiasm.  I 
repeat  it  again  on  account  of  its  import- 
ance— the  so-called  safe  men  in  a  Church 
are  among  the  surest  causes  of  its  decay. 

Thus,  then,  we  seem  to  have  arrived  at 
this  curious  position,  that  while  the  great 
and  mischievous  hindrances  to  effective 
preaching  consist  in  the  adopting  of  ex- 


SECT.  XLV.]  REMEDIES.  131 

tremes — excess  in  doctrine  or  its  absence, 
in  logic  or  its  absence,  in  uniformity  or 
its  absence — we  find  on  the  other  hand 
that  the  avoidance  of  extremes  tones 
down  everything  into  a  sombre  mediocrity, 
which  is  perhaps  more  mischievous  than 
they  are.  Success  in  preaching  would 
seem  therefore  impossible,  and  all  our 
labour  in  vain.  It  re^mains  for  us  to 
see  how  far  this  dilemma  is  absolute,  and 
how  far  the  review  of  the  whole  question 
enables  us  to  suggest  remedies,  and  pre- 
dict their  chances  of  success. 

§  45.  If  a  man  of  large  sympathies 
and  wide  experience  were  asked  which 
among  his  worldly  friends  he  considered 
to  have  lived  the  happiest  life,  he  would 
certainly  not  choose  those  who  had 
timorously  and  ^circumspectly  avoided 
every  extreme.  In  human  life  there 
are  many  great  delights  in  themselves 
an  excess,  and  very  frequently  leading 
tc  loss  and  damage  of  some  kind.     And 


132  ON  PREACHING.      [sect.  XLV. 

yet  the  damage  can  be  made  good  and 
the  loss  recovered;  and  then  the  man 
has  added  to  his  experience  that  which 
will  make  him  know  human  life  in  some 
truer  and  deeper  way  than  that  of  mere 
speculation.  He  who  has  lived,  in  many 
senses  of  the  term,  intensely,  even  passion- 
ately, is  often  a  more  interesting  man  from 
many  aspects  than  he  who  has  merely  kept 
clear  of  dangers.  He  is  interesting  because 
he  possesses  a  stronger,  bolder  nature, 
which  is  guided,  sometimes,  at  least,  by 
great  and  noble  impulses  ;  he  is  interesting 
because  he  knows  what  suffering  is  as 
well  as  joy  ;  in  fact,  he  may  be  forgiven 
much,  because  he  has  loved  much.  In 
any  case  he  knows  the  great  interests  and 
great  temptations  of  the  world  really,  and 
not  by  hearsay,  and  ^can  estimate  the 
amount  of  good  and  evil  in  human  nature 
which  the  theoretical  observer  only  guesses 
from  the  outside. 

This  is  not  sanctioning  that  men  shall 


SECT.  XL  v.]  REMEDIES.  133 

be  passionate  in  order  to  excuse  vice  ;  far 
from  it.  But  it  is  really  a  distinct  counter- 
statement  to  the  old  theory  that  happiness 
consists  in  the  avoidance  of  extremes  ;  it 
asserts  that  to  have  fallen  into  the  extremes, 
and  to  have  escaped  the  tempest,  not  with- 
out some  pain  and  loss,  may  possibly  be 
happier,  if  we  morally  survive  it,  than  to 
live,  like  the  gods  of  Epicurus,  in  the  ifiter- 
niundia  between  felicity  and  sorrow,  and 
never  to  ruffle  the  eternal  calm  of  a  placid 
existence. 

But  this  is  not  the  place  to  criticise  such 
an  argument,  for  it  is  only  here  introduced 
to  serve  as  an  illustration  of  what  really 
great  and  full  sermons  should  be,  as  con- 
trasted with  the  discourses  of  the  safe  man. 
All  the  extremes  which  have  been  dis- 
cussed are  censured  rather  because  they 
absorb  a  man's  preaching,  than  because 
they  are  in  themselves  faulty.  In  the 
largest  sense  it  is  sameness  which  ruins, 
and   variety    which    quickens,    all    public 


134  ON  PREACHING,     [sect.  xlvi. 

speaking.  The  preacher  should  not  avoid 
strong  and  even  harsh  statement  of  doc- 
trine ;  he  should  not  be  afraid  in  any  one 
discourse  of  any  of  the  faults  above  noted  ; 
he  should  fear  them  as  spread  over  the 
whole  of  his  preaching.  St.  Paul  on  one 
side,  and  St.  James  on  the  other,  afford  an 
infinitely  stronger  and  better  statement  of 
the  full  Christian  creed  than  a  balanced 
declaration  made  by  qualifying  the  one 
with  the  other,  and  adding  limitations  and 
reservations  to  each  proposition. 

§  46.  What  is  therefore  required  of  the 
preacher  is  to  feel  that  his  subject  is  broad 
and  has  many  sides,  and  that  each  deserves 
to  be  put  forward  strongly  and  clearly — 
it  is  even  better  to  do  it  inconsistently  as 
regards  the  various  sides — but  each  in  its 
turn.  To  do  this  efficiently,  the  best  thing 
we  can  suggest  is  higher  and  more  careful 
culture  in  the  teacher.  Piety — a  great  and 
effective,  though  not  all-sufficing  condition 
— can,  unfortunately,  not  be  secured  in  any 


SECT,  xlvl]         remedies.  135 

large  class.  We  may  even  predict  that  it 
will  remain  always  the  privilege  of  the  few. 
Intellect,  in  the  higher  sense,  is  not  to  be 
secured,  for  the  same  reason.  Like  the 
wise  man  of  the  Stoics,  who  differed  in  kind 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  a  few  men  have 
real  brains  or  intellectual  power  ;  and  until 
the  conditions  of  producing  the  human  race 
change  more  than  is  likely  within  the  pre- 
sent age,  these  cases  of  mental  power  will 
remain  the  exceptions.^  But  as  the  pious 
man  naturally  gravitates  towards  a  profes- 
sion .which  gives  full  scope  to  the  aspira- 
tions of  his  heart,  so  the  intellectual  man  as 
such  will  turn  to  the  course  of  life  which 
not  only  gives  him  scope  for  speculation, 
but  scope  for  power  and  influence.  Hence 
he  will  naturally  adopt  such  professions 
as  enable  a  man  to  attain  great  position, 
as  the  natural  consequence  of  success. 
It  is  therefore  by  the  great  prizes  at  the 
head  of  a  profession  that  really  able  men 

1  Cf.  on  this  my  Old  Greek  Education^  §  65. 


136  ON  PREACHING.     [SECT.  XLVi. 

are  attracted.  They  are  not  dispirited  by 
the  slowness  or  lateness  of  the  reward. 
They  are  even  content  to  toil  for  nothing, 
provided  that  when  their  power  is  felt 
there  will  be  high  place  and  influence  to 
reward  it. 

This,  then,  is  a  point  of  view  which 
modern  society  should  not  forget,  when 
reflecting  on  the  possibility  of  reforming 
and  improving  our  preachers.  There  were 
in  older  days,  and  there  are  even  still  in 
established  churches,  these  great  prizes,  and 
consequently  very  able  men  will  accept 
poverty  in  their  youth  in  order  to  attain 
them.  But  when  we  hear  it  stated  as 
a  good  feature  in  the  present  Protestant 
Church  of  Ireland  that  any  curate  can 
command  twice  the  salary  he  could  for- 
merly obtain,  we  should  ask.  What  about 
the  bishops  and  deans?  what  about  the 
best  livings  ?  And  when  we  hear  that  a 
young  man  is  likely  to  get  as  much  salary 
in  five  years  as  he  will  ever  get, — when  we 


SECT.  XLVi.]  REMEDIES.  137 

see  in  the  Irish  the  difficulty  and  dislike  of 
giving  their  new  bishops  nniore  than  a  re- 
spectable pittance,  we  may  safely  conclude 
that  though  the  better  pay  of  curates  will 
secure  for  such  a  ministry  the  entrance  of 
a  great  many  poor  men  who  want  a  quick 
return  for  the  outlay  of  their  education, 
the  lack  of  real  prizes  will  deter  all  such 
as  are  able  and  ambitious  to  succeed,  un- 
less they  at  the  same  time  feel  a  deep 
and  controlling  call  to  devote  themselves 
to  the  teaching  of  religion. 

No  doubt  the  majority  of  pious  people 
in  the  Irish  Church  would  accept  this  con- 
clusion as  the  right  one.  They  would  say, 
What  do  we  want  with  clever  men  in  our 
ministry,  if  they  are  not  seriously  called  to 
it  from  within  ?  Intellect  without  piety  is 
surely  dangerous,  and  will  lead  the  Church 
into  trouble.  Let  us  have  safe,  pious  men, 
and  scorn  the  aid  of  human  intellect ! 
The  heathen  by  wisdom  know  not  God,  and 
so  forth.     All  we  need  here  add  is,  that  if 


138  ON  PREACHING.     FsECT.  XLVi. 

stupid  men  on  the  average  are  more  pious 
than  able  men,  there  is  something  wrong 
about  the  creed  which  is  not  in  harmony 
with  power  and  force  in  human  character. 
But  without  going  again  into  this  ques- 
tion, it  is  enough  to  repeat  that  here,  in 
this  argument,  the  question  of  preaching 
alone  is  before  us.  It  is  certainly  true 
that  if  we  are  to  have  able  and  vigorous 
preaching,  we  must  have  clever  men.  It 
may  be  worth  while  to  despise  human 
ability  for  the  sake  of  higher  ends  ;  it  may 
be  worth  while  to  keep  out  ambition  and 
energy  for  the  sake  of  the  dangers  they 
provoke.  But  though  your  safe  men, 
your  men  of  small  ambition  and  poor 
abilities,  may  make  valuable  ministers  in 
other  respects,  they  will  not,  however  pious, 
make  preachers.  Perhaps  preaching  is  al- 
together a  mistake  now-a-days.  If  so,  let 
it  be  abandoned  ;  but  as  long  as  we  have 
it,  and  as  long  as  we  desire  to  have  it  good 
and  telling,  we  cannot  despise  intellect  in 


SECT.  XLVII.]         REMEDIES.  139 

any  ministry,  but  must  try  to  secure  it  by 
all  reasonable  means. 

§  47.  Next  comes  the  question  of  cul- 
ture. This  is  the  point  where  good  can 
really  be  done  by  care  and  forethought. 
Hence  it  is  that  bishops  and  colleges  and 
synods  should  insist  that  all  possible  efforts 
be  directed  to  make  the  teachers  in  their 
Churches  superior  in  culture  to  the  aver- 
age of  their  congregations.  Hence  it  is 
that  they  should  insist  on  University  train- 
ing, or  whatever  other  training  in  science 
and  literature  will  lift  men  out  of  the  herd, 
and  fit  them  to  speak  as  educated  men 
on  the  great  topics  which  they  profess  to 
expound. 

For  the  same  reason  those  theological 
colleges  in  favour  with  the  Roman  Church 
and  the  extremest  Protestants  alike  are 
radically  defective.  They  either  give  no 
general  culture  at  all,  or  give  it  with  a  bias 
and  flavour  of  theology,  which  it  retains 
all  through  a  man's  teaching,  and  which 


I40  ON  PREACHING.  [SECT.  XLVIII. 

shows  evidently  the  source  from  which 
it  has  sprung.  Those  ancient  seats  of 
learning,  where  theological  students  both 
live  with,  and  are  taught  along  with,  lay- 
students,  are  therefore  much  preferable  ; 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  would  be  hard 
to  find  a  really  eminent  preacher  coming 
from  a  close  theological  college,  at  least 
in  the  Protestant  Churches.  Contact  with 
the  world,  familiarity  with  lay  science 
and  lay  professions,  union  among  all 
civilised  men  in  feeling  and  temper,  — 
these  influences  give  a  more  human  and 
sympathetic  tone  to  the  young  preacher, 
and  are  likely  to  teach  him  what  kind 
of  arguments  are  suitable  for  convincing 
men. 

§  48.  But  while  the  universities  are  pre- 
eminently the  best  training  places  in  the 
way  of  general  education,  they  are  much 
to  be  blamed  for  not  having  given  more 
attention  to  the  special  training  of  theo- 
logical students  in  their  schools.     It  is  all 


SECT,  xlviil]       remedies.  141 

very  well  to  say  that  they  are  only  con- 
cerned with  general  preparation,  and  that 
the  student  must  learn  the  special  matters 
himself.  If  they  adopt  a  theological  course 
at  all,  they  are  not  to  be  excused  for  ne- 
glecting all  practice  in  rhetoric,  and  in  the 
composition  of  sermons.  Writing  an  occa- 
sional exercise,  which  the  professor  reads, 
or  perhaps  corrects,  is  little  to  the  point; 
but  I  should  be  very  sorry,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  see  classes  established  in  Sacred 
Rhetoric, — as  the  manner  of  some  is, — as 
if  sacred  rhetoric  were  different  from  any 
other  rhetoric.  The  sort  of  training  here 
meant  is  this,  that  the  Professor  should 
not  only  announce  a  subject  and  require 
written  exercises  on  it,  but  himself  correct 
them,  and  show  how  the  subject  ought 
to  have  been  treated,  giving  specimens 
of  his  own  wherewith  the  students  may 
compare  their  less  perfect  essays.  He 
should  also  point  out  to  them  those 
simpler  arts  in  composition  which  many 


142  ON  PREACHING,   [sect.  XLViii. 

of  us  only  learn  by  continual  failures,  and 
which  many  fail  to  appreciate  all  their 
lives.  This  suggestion  and  criticism  of  the 
lines  of  treatment  which  as  ubject  admits, 
is  a  vital  part  of  the  training  of  a  preacher 
which  has  hitherto  been  strangely  ne- 
glected. So  much  for  the  composition  of 
written  sermons. 

But  every  preacher  who  addresses  large 
and  ignorant  congregations  should  also  be 
trained  in  extempore  speaking,  which  alone 
affects  the  masses.  If  they  lose  the 
speaker's  eye,  they  will  hardly  follow 
the  thread  of  his  discourse.  And  they 
want  homely,  vernacular  English,  such 
as  a  man  of  culture  may  recoil  from 
writing  down  in  his  study.  Training  in 
rhetoric,  properly  so  called,  is  therefore 
necessary  ;  and  all  theological  students 
should  be  carefully  taught  and  watched  as 
to  their  language,  action,  and  delivery,  so 
that  when  they  come  to  occupy  a  pulpit 
they  will  not  at  once  offend  the  hearer  by 


SECT.  XLix.]  REMEDIES.  143 

awkwardness  or  mannerism,  but  attract 
him  by  unaffected  simplicity.  It  was 
the  study  of  these  principles  which  made 
orators  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  whose 
works  are  models  to  the  present  day. 
They  did  not  venture  to  come  before  any 
audience  whom  they  wished  to  persuade, 
without  the  anxious  use  of  every  possible 
aid.  Do  we  imagine  that  we  can  expect 
successful  preaching  from  a  body  of  average 
men  who  do  not  even  know  what  the 
science  of  rhetoric  means  ?  Training  in 
rhetoric  is  therefore  a  very  pressing  need 
of  our  preachers,  and  will  do  more  to  im- 
prove them  than  can  well  be  estimated. 

§  49.  Let  us  here  repeat  the  objection 
which  many  serious  readers  have  been  im- 
patiently reconsidering  while  reading  this 
page.  What  do  we  want,  they  say,  in 
the  pulpit  with  artificial  rhetoric  ?  What 
do  we  want  with  affectations  and  manner- 
isms ?  We  want  men  to  speak  simply 
from  the  heart  plain  and  striking  truths. 


144  ON  PREACHING.     [SECT.  XLix. 

We  want  to  feel  the  good  man,  and  not 
the  polished  orator,  addressing  us.  In  all 
this  I  perfectly  concur.  But  let  me  repeat 
to  these  objectors  that  they  are  wholly 
in  error  when  they  assume  that  speakers 
are  natural  if  they  neglect  rhetoric,  arti- 
ficial if  they  employ  it.  For  we  are  not 
speaking  of  bad  and  vulgar  rhetoric  ;  we 
are  not  speaking  of  the  vulgar  teaching  of 
elocution  by  some  self-styled  Professor,  like 
those  of  music  and  dancing.  Bad  rhetoric 
will  produce  many  evils ;  it  is  the  duty  of 
good  rhetoric  to  obviate  the  very  faults  of 

own  abuse. 

There  is  no  greater  fault  in  a  speaker 
than  to  produce  the  impression  that  he 
is  studied  and  artificial ;  there  is  no- 
thing which  a  good  teacher  should  cor- 
rect more  severely.  And  it  is  not  the 
voice  of  nature,  but  the  voice  of  the 
most  consummate  art,  which  speaks  simply 
from  the  heart  clear  and  striking  thoughts. 
To  attain  this  perfection   is   the   highest 


SECT.  XLix.]  REMEDIES.  14S 

ideal  at  which  rhetoric  can  aim.  It  is 
a  profound  mistake  to  expect  it  from  un- 
tutored nature.  There  may  be  one  man 
or  perhaps  two  in  a  generation  who  have 
this  highest  of  all  arts  by  a  divine  gift  of 
genius.  Among  ordinary  men  nothing  is 
so  natural  and  inevitable,  when  they 
attempt  public  speaking,  as  mannerism. 
It  infects  them  immediately,  constantly, 
pertinaciously ;  while  we  require  the 
most  unwearied  care  and  diligence  to 
root  it  out.  We  may  regard  it  as  an 
axiom  that  the  more  ignorant  and  un- 
cultivated a  speaker,  the  less  natural  will 
he  be ;  he  will  use  absurd  and  fallacious 
arguments  ;  he  will  indulge  in  tawdry  and 
extravagant  metaphors  ;  he  will  display 
awkward  and  offensive  action.  If  he  be 
gifted,  as  the  Irish  are,  with  natural 
fluency,  it  will  probably  only  intensify 
these  faults.  In  the  preacher  especially, 
who  is  secure  from  open  ridicule  on 
the    part  of   his   audience  or    succeeding 


146  ON  PREACHING,     [sect,  xlix 

speakers,  they  are  apt  to  grow  up 
unchecked,  and  to  mar  his  power. 

Thus  it  is  certain  that  the  adop- 
tion of  a  religious  voice  in  the  pulpit,  a 
voice  distinct  from  the  ordinary  tone,  and 
intended  to  convey  an  impression  of 
greater  solemnity,  is  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  the  preacher  being  regarded 
as  artificial,  and  his  subject  foreign  to 
our  ordinary  business  and  our  serious 
worldly  interests.  No  one  can  tell  how 
much  this  simple  and  common  blunder 
has  done  to  sever  our  religion  from  our 
ordinary  life,  and  relegate  it  to  special 
moments,  so  as  to  be  assumed  with  Sunday 
clothes  and  services.  It  should,  therefore, 
be  the  first  duty  of  a  sound  rhetorician  to 
extirpate  this  fatal  mannerism  in  the 
preacher,  and  insist  that  real  seriousness 
is  quite  inconsistent  with  any  such  airs 
and  graces. 

So  much,  then,  may  be  urged  concern- 
ing the  better  training,  both  general  and 


SECT.  L.]  REMEDIES.  147 

special,  which  the  clergy  of  all  denomina- 
tions, of  all  sorts  and  classes  of  men, 
ought  to  receive,  and  without  which  their 
preaching  will  only  be  effective  in  those  rare 
cases  where  nature  has  done  everything 
in  a  way  which  art  can  only  faintly  copy. 
§  50.  Turning  to  other  considerations,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  for  a  preacher,  who 
should  soar  above  the  practice  of  ordinary 
life,  and  proclaim  ideal  piety,  ideal  virtue, 
ideal  self-sacrifice,  the  Roman  Catholic 
law  of  celibacy  is  very  profitable.  The 
orator  who  emerges  from  his  study  or 
his  cell,  unknown  or  scarcely  known  to 
his  audience,  can  reason  of  justice,  and 
temperance,  and  judgment  to  come,  with 
far  more  singleness  of  heart  and  far  more 
force  than  he  who  is  engaged  in  the 
trivialities  and  distractions  of  family  life, 
and  lives  in  a  society  more  or  less 
inquisitive  and  censorious.  If,  therefore, 
celibacy  could  be  maintained  for  an  order 
ot   preachers  in  the   Reformed  Churches, 


148  ON  PREACHING.  [sect.  li. 

it  would  tend  in  many  ways  to  make  their 
discourses  more  impressive,  more  down- 
right, more  ideal  in  aim.  It  is  Elijah  from 
the  desert,  it  is  John  the  Baptist  from 
the  wilderness,  it  is  Savonarola  from  his 
cell,  who  are  best  qualified  to  impress  and 
lead  mankind  by  preaching. 

§  5  I.  But  if  in  many  sects  or  churches 
this  be  found  difficult  or  impossible  to 
attain,  it  could  be  in  some  measure  made 
good  by  establishing  an  Order  of  itinerant 
preachers,  whose  whole  duty  should  be  to 
travel  from  place  to  place  for  the  purpose 
of  speaking  from  the  pulpit  Of  course 
such  an  order,  which  need  never  be  large, 
should  consist  of  men  specially  selected  for 
their  preaching  talent,  and  the  fact  that 
they  seldom  addressed  the  same  congrega- 
tion would  make  it  unnecessary  for  them 
to  prepare  more  than  a  limited  number 
of  discourses,  on  which  they  could  spend 
all  their  care  and  attention.  These  dis- 
courses would  even  gain  in  terseness  and 


SECT.  LI.]  REMEDIES.  149 

completeness  by  frequent  recasting;  and 
thus  we  might  expect  to  obtain  the  best 
work  which  the  best  preachers  could  pro- 
duce, instead  of  remaining  at  the  mercy 
of  some  half-educated  curate,  with  neither 
talent  for  speaking  nor  time  for  prepara- 
tion. 

Above  all,  our  preachers  would  not 
be  subject  to  that  most  damaging,  but 
most  illogical  criticism  :  Does  he  live  up 
to  what  he  preaches  f  Damaging  this 
criticism  is,  as  everybody  knows.  It  is 
also  illogical,  because,  as  a  preacher,  it  is 
his  duty  to  say  the  best  and  finest  things; 
it  is  his  duty  rather  as  a  man  than  as  a 
preacher  to  endeavour  to  live  up  to  them. 
What  should  we  say  if  the  preacher  were 
to  lower  his  standard  to  suit  his  own 
life  ?  What  should  we  say  if  he  only 
recommended  a  limited  purity,  a  qualified 
faith,  a  doubtful  hope,  because  he  felt  he 
could  rise  no  higher  himself?  Of  course 
such    a   thing  would   be   absurd.     He   is 


ISO  ON  PREACHING.        [sect.  lii. 

bound  in  the  pulpit  to  take  the  highest 
possible  ground.  Hence  it  is  obvious 
that  his  foibles,  which  are  inevitable, 
should  be  kept  out  ot  sight  of  his  hearers. 
§  52.  It  is  a  natural  corollary  from  this 
principle  to  suggest  the  abolition  of  con- 
stant sermons.  To  expect  from  any  one 
two  good  sermons  every  week,  or  even  one, 
is  unreasonable;  how  much  more  to  expect 
them  from  a  hard-working  parish  priest, — 
from  a  man  whose  practical  duties  and 
whose  family  cares  must  occupy  most  of 
his  time.  The  sooner  this  necessity  is 
recognised  among  Protestants  of  all  kinds 
the  better.  The  days  are  now  passing 
away  when  the  sermon  can  be  considered 
the  main  service,  with  a  mere  preface  of 
prayers  and  Scriptures.  There  is  no 
magic  in  the  sermon,  nor  in  this  constant 
preaching ;  and  the  practice  of  setting 
young  men,  on  their  first  ordination,  to 
produce  sermons  at  such  a  rate*  is  generally 
fatal  to  their  success.     In  a  year  or  two 


SECT.  Llll.]  REMEDIES.  151 

the'y  get  into  the  habit  of  winding  up 
as  much  theological  commonplace  as  will 
keep  going  for  twenty-five  minutes; 
all  attempt  at  elaborating  or"  sifting  a 
subject  is  impossible ;  and  so  we  have 
created  for  ourselves  that  class  of  average 
preachers  whom  we  hear,  and  do  not  hear; 
whom  we  attend,  and  do  not  attend  to. 
This  duty  of  having  one  or  two  sermons 
ready  every  Sunday,  under  all  circum- 
stances of  mind  and  temper,  of  business 
or  recreation,  of  indisposition  or  depres- 
sion, is  the  most  intolerable  tyranny 
conceivable,  until  the  victim  of  it  learns 
to  do  it  in  a  slovenly  and  inefficient  way, 
so  that  it  comes  to  weigh  lightly  upon 
his  conscience  and  his  time.  Constant 
preaching,  therefore,  should  be  abolished, 
or  handed  over  to  the  itinerant  order, 
whose  visits  would  relieve  the  stationary 
priest  of  some  of  the  duty. 

§  53.  To  help  in  another  way,  it  would 
seem  very  expedient  that  instead  of  the  old- 


152  ON  PREACHING.        sect.  Liii. 

fashioned  homilies  ordered  to  be  read  in 
some  Churches,  a  new  and  large  collection 
of  authorised  sermons  should  be  issued  by 
the  heads  of  each  Church,  selected  from 
her  greatest  doctors,  and  given  to  every 
parish  minister  to  use  freely  when  he  is 
unable  to  produce  anything  useful  of  his 
own.  Such  a  collection,  made  in  a  large 
spirit,  and  from  the  greatest  preachers, 
would  save  many  a  congregation  from 
the  waste  of  time  and  temper  caused  by 
a  foolish  discourse,  and  would  accustom 
the  minister  to  acknowledge  his  obliga- 
tions openly,  and  not  appropriate  the 
words  of  others  in  silence.  Indeed,  it  is 
very  likely  that  the  habit  of  indiscriminate 
plagiarism  which  is  now  permitted,  and 
which  must  be  permitted,  to  our  over- 
taxed preachers,  leads  to  a  laxity  in  their 
notions  of  honesty  in  other  respects,  and 
lays  them  open  to  the  charge  of  holding 
a  lower  standard  in  this  all-important  side 
of  morals  than  their  secular  neighbours. 


SECT.  LIV.]  REMEDIES.  153 

The  homilies  attempted  to  meet  the  diffi- 
culty in  their  day.  How  infinitely  better 
it  could  be  met  by  culling  from  our  splen- 
did pulpit  literature ! 

§  54.  On  the  other  hand,  on  those  occa- 
sions when  a  great  preacher  is  to  address  the 
people,  and  when  the  sermon  really  is  the 
main  thing,  all  our  Churches  should  show 
more  elasticity  in  shortening  or  dispensing 
with  their  services,  and  not  wearying  the 
audience  before  the  orator  obtains  their 
attention.  A  service  of  an  hour  is  a  very 
bad  introduction  to  the  mental  strain  of  fol- 
lowing a  sustained  argument ;  many  people 
are  so  impatient  of  long  prayers  that  they 
will  not  even  go  to  hear  the  sermon. 
Nor  can  it  be  urged  now-a-days,  when 
most  people  can  read  for  themselves,  that 
constant  and  long  services  are  in  any  way 
so  essential  or  useful  as  they  were  when 
the  people  could  obtain  no  other  spiritual 
sustenance.  Thus  the  sermon  by  itself 
would  often  be  attractive,  and  would  not 


154  ON  PREACHING.         [sect.  lv. 

only  enlist  the  interest  of  the  audience,  but 
that  of  the  preacher  himself,  who  would  feel 
listlessness  and  laziness  on  his  part  to  be 
indeed  criminal  when  they  stand  out  by 
themselves,  and  cannot  escape  under  cover 
of  the  listlessness  of  the  audience. 

Possibly  it  might  be  well  to  vary 
even  more  the  external  circumstances  of 
preaching.  It  might  be  well  to  have  ser- 
mons not  in  pulpits,  but  on  platforms,  or 
from  the  chancel,  or  in  some  other  way  less 
bound  by  fixed  ceremony.  In  all  these 
changes  caution  should  be  used,  and  in  no 
way  should  the  seriousness  of  the  office  be 
impaired ;  but  let  the  seriousness  be  real, 
not  fictitious ;  let  it  be  in  the  spirit,  not 
in  the  letter. 

Epilogue. 

§  5  5.  It  may  be  asked  at  the  conclusion 
of  this  study  what  the  writer  really  hopes  or 
anticipates  for  the  future  of  preaching,  and 


SECT.  LV.]  EPILOGUE.  1 55 

whether  he  has  no  larger  and  more 
thorough-going  reforms  to  suggest.  A  few 
words  on  each  of  these  points  will  fitly 
bring  these  remarks  to  a  close.  As  regards 
the  future  of  preaching,  I  confess  that 
among  the  better  classes,  and  with  edu- 
cated congregations,  I  think  its  day  is 
gone  by.  They  no  longer  want  instruc- 
tion from  the  pulpit  when  they  can  find  it 
in  thousands  of  books  ;  nor  will  they  be  led 
by  the  opinions  of  men  who  are  not  superior 
to  themselves  in  intellect  and  culture,  often 
not  even  in  training.  They  will  no  doubt 
continue  to  attend  sermons  for  years  to 
come,  by  way  of  occupation  on  an  idle 
day, — it  may  be  from  some  intellectual  in- 
terest in  special  preachers,  or  as  an  example 
to  young  people.  But  the  days  for  any 
average  minister  to  lead  and  influence  such 
people  by  his  preacJiing  are  gone  by.  He 
may  do  it  by  visiting,  by  special  argument 
with  each,  by  the  example  of  his  life. 
He  will  no  longer  do  it  by  a  set  discourse. 


iS6  ON  PREACHING.       [sect.  LVi. 

when  people  can  read  many  better  dis- 
courses, and  have  grown  callous  to  those 
sudden  impressions  which  stimulate  the 
ignorant  masses. 

With  these,  on  the  other  hand,  the  power 
of  the  pulpit  ought  still  to  be  great ;  and 
seeing  that  the  majority  of  congregations, 
even  in  the  most  civilised  parts  of  the  world, 
is  still  ignorant  and  unlettered,  there  is  a 
great  scope  here  for  powerful  preaching. 
The  masses  are  still  to  be  reached,  so  far  as 
good  influences  go,  only  through  the  plat- 
form and  the  pulpit.  Through  the  press, 
alas !  they  frequently  obtain  little  more 
than  the  worst  and  vilest  instruction.  It 
is  here,  in  the  mission  for  what  is  noble 
and  true  and  spiritual  to  the  masses, 
that  the  failure  of  modern  preaching  is 
deeply  blamable,  and  it  is  to  this  point 
that  reforming  churches  should  direct  their 
efforts. 

§  5  6.  Are  there,  then,  no  larger  reforms 
or    improvements    to    be  suggested   than 


SECT.  LVi.]  EPILOGUE.  157 

those  to  be  found    in    this   essay?      No 
doubt  there  are ;  its  main  object  is  to  ex- 
hibit the  decay,  not  to  attempt  the  reform, 
of  modern  preaching.      Other  minds  ap- 
proaching the  problem  from  this  latter  side 
will  throw  light  upon  it,  and  the  very  criti- 
cism of  the  faults  of  this  essay  may  suggest 
new  and  fruitful  views.     But  I  will  here 
insist  that  the  reform  suggested  of  training 
specially  the  men  set  apart  for  preaching 
is    not    a    trifling    one,    and    is   likely,  if 
adopted,  to  have  far    larger  effects   than 
may  at  first  be  imagined.     The  preaching 
of  modern  (Jays,  so  far  as  we  know  it,  is 
purely  an  amateur  performance,  taken  up 
without  special  talents  or  special  training, 
by    those    who    offer    themselves  for  the 
office  in  the  various  Churches.     No  doubt 
the    Church    of    Rome,    with    her    usual 
wisdom,  has  established  preaching  orders, 
where  some  selection  is  made  according  to 
talent,  and  some  training  given,  though  I 
know  not  what  it  is,  and    whether   it  is 


158  ON  PREACHING.        [sect.  LVi. 

really  efficient.  But  with  this  limited 
exception,  there  is  nothing  whatever 
done  to  improve  preaching  by  human 
means.  Some  people,  too,  think  there 
ought  not  to  be  ;  that  men  need  take  no 
thought  what  they  shall  say.  With  these 
people  I  am  not  agreed,  as  the  whole  of 
this  essay  considers  the  matter  from  a 
human  point  of  view. 

But  from  this  point  it  cannot  be  urged 
too  strongly  that  random  and  amateur 
attempts  are  likely  beforehand  to  be  of 
little  value;  and  were  any  impartial 
judge  from  another  world  shown  what 
the  training  of  our  ministers  is,  and 
what  they  were  expected  to  accomplish, 
he  would  wonder  at  such  expectations, 
and  argue  with  certainty  that,  as  in 
all  other  things  human,  special  care  and 
training  are  needful  to  attain  perfection, 
so  preaching  also  can  be  of  no  use  or 
influence,  so  long  as  there  is  no  reason- 
able care  taken  to  ensure  a  better  result. 


SECT,  lvl]  epilogue.  159 

It  may  perhaps  be  argued  that  when 
good  effects  are  only  anticipated  among 
ignorant  people  of  the  lower  classes,  such 
a  limitation  cuts  away  the  ground  from  the 
advocates  of  higher  training  in  the  clergy. 
It  may  be  said.  Of  what  use  is  special  train- 
ing to  these  people,  who  do  not  know  the 
difference  between  good  and  bad  rhetoric, 
who  can  only  understand  the  plainest  and 
simplest  language?  I  will  conclude  by 
once  more  exposing  this  serious  blunder. 
Ignorant  people  may  not  be  able  to  explain 
the  difference  between  good  and  bad 
rhetoric ;  they  feel  it  more  keenly  than  their 
betters  ;  they  are  more  easily  and  violently 
affected  by  a  real  orator ;  they  are  as 
easily  disgusted  by  incompetence.  No- 
where are  the  arts  of  eloquence  so  neces- 
sary and  so  telling  as  with  the  vulgar 
crowd.  And  if  it  be  true  that  they  want 
and  understand  only  simple  words  and 
plain  speaking,  I  repeat  once  more  that  to 
rival  nature  in    art  implies  a   very  high 


i6o  ON  PREACHING.       [SECT.  LVL 

stage  of  perfection ;  and  that  to  avoid  arti- 
ficiality, cant,  mannerism,  extravagance, 
tediousness,  is  given,  not  to  the  ignorant 
amateur,  but  to  the  best  and  most  thorough 
artist 


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The  Life  and  Times  of  St.  Bernard,  Abbot  of  Clairvaux, 
A.  D.  1091-1153.  By  James  Cotter  Morison,  M.A., 
Lincoln  College,  Oxford.     New  Edition.     i2mo.     $2. 

A  fascinating  and  readable  book,  and  the  reader  will  thank  him  for  his  powerful 
picture  of  a  hero  and  a  saint  of  all  time. — Church  yoiirnal. 

Idfe  of  John  Eadie,  D.D.,  LL.D.  By  James  Brown,  D.D. 
Second  Edition.     i2mo.     With  Portrait.     $2. 

We  have  just  laid  down  the  fascinating  biography  of  the  late  Dr.  Eadie,  of 
Scotland,  the  erudite  commentator,  and  one  of  the  most  robust  Scotchmen  of  his 
time. — Rev.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler. 

Memorials  from  Journals  and  Letters  of  Samuel  Clark, 
M.A.,  F.R.G.S.,  late  Rector  of  Eaton  Bishop,  Hereford- 
shire, and  formerly  Principal  of  the  National  Society's 
Training  College,  Battersea.  Edited,  with  an  Introduc- 
tion, by  his  wife.     With  Portrait.     i2mo.     $2. 


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